Politico reports:

Canada’s Justin Trudeau era is coming to an end.

The three-term prime minister announced Monday morning that he plans to step down as prime minister and as party leader once the Liberals choose his successor.

Trudeau told Canadians in a televised address that although he prides himself on being a fighter, he will step aside because of the divisiveness and polarization around his leadership — including inside his own caucus.

“This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election,” Trudeau said from a lectern outside the front door of his official residence on a frigid winter morning.

Trudeau chose a backdrop familiar to Canadians: his front door was where he addressed the anxious nation at least 80 times in the first four months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a period of his rule where his popularity was high, unlike today.

Trudeau also announced that the governor general granted his request to shut down the Parliament until March 24, a move that adds to uncertainty in Ottawa ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The prorogation of Parliament comes in face of Trump’s threats to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports to the U.S. — something he said he could do on his first day in the White House on Jan. 20.

Trudeau’s announcement of prorogation ends the current parliamentary session and stops legislation and committee business in their tracks.

Prorogation is a blunt tool meant to allow Trudeau’s inner circle to regroup following the recent resignation of the prime minister’s longtime finance minister and ally, Chrystia Freeland. [Continue reading…]