the SNC-Lavalin affair<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and for luxury trips to the Bahamas.<\/p>\nIn 2020, he faced scrutiny for picking a charity with ties to his family to manage a major government programme.<\/p>\n
In a general election in 2019, his party was reduced to a minority status, meaning the Liberals had to rely on the support of other parties to stay in power.<\/p>\n
A snap election in 2021 did not improve their fortunes.<\/p>\n
More recently, Trudeau faced headwinds from cost of living increases and inflation that have contributed to election upsets around the world.<\/p>\n
There was also frustration in the country over what was seen as struggles to deliver on big promises \u2013 an agenda that was \u201coverfilled, overstuffed\u201d, said Mr Wells \u2013 and his handling of issues like immigration.<\/p>\n
Late last year, the Liberals backtracked on ambitious immigration targets over concerns the issue was mismanaged, significantly cutting back on the number of newcomers allowed in Canada.<\/p>\n
He also sometimes handed his opponents easy political wins, including when it came to light that he had worn black and brown face before holding office.<\/p>\n
After more than nine years in power, he is among Canada\u2019s longest serving prime ministers, and there is a general sense of fatigue and frustration with his government.<\/p>\n
So the writing was on the wall.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
A series of political blows made it clear Trudeau\u2019s days were numbered.<\/p>\n
Over the summer, voters rejected Liberal candidates in a handful of special elections in once-safe Liberal seats, leading to the beginning of internal party unrest.<\/p>\n
He had become an increasingly polarising figure for the electorate \u2013 with Trudeau saying on Monday \u201cit\u2019s time for a reset\u201d and for the \u201ctemperature to come down\u201d in Canadian politics.<\/p>\n
Andrew Perez, a principal at Perez Strategies, said it will be a challenge now for the Liberals to distance themselves from the Trudeau brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a major aspect of their success \u2013 but that worked until it didn\u2019t,\u201d the Liberal strategist told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Public opinion polls for the Liberals had reached new depths in recent weeks, and attempts to change course with cabinet shuffles and tax breaks failed to make a dent.<\/p>\n
A survey conducted over the holidays by the Angus Reid Institute suggested the lowest level of support for the party in their tracking, dating back to 2014.<\/p>\n
Polls suggest the Conservatives \u2013 led by Pierre Poilievre, a 45-year-old career politician with a talent for a sharp campaign catchphrase \u2013 would win an election handily if it were held today.<\/p>\n
The next election must be held by October, although both Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada\u2019s New Democratic Party, have said they will seek to send Canadians to the polls as soon as parliament is back in March.<\/p>\n
The political instability comes as the country faces a number of challenges \u2013 not least the vow by US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on 20 January, to impose of 25% tariffs on Canadian goods.<\/p>\n
Yet still, up until the very end, Trudeau seemed determined to hang on, citing his desire to face Poilievre \u2013 his ideological opposite \u2013 in the polls.<\/p>\n
But the shock resignation of Trudeau\u2019s key deputy, former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, in mid-December \u2013 where she cited his perceived failure to not take Trump\u2019s threats seriously \u2013 proved to be the final straw.<\/p>\n
Members of his own party began to make it publicly clear they no longer supported his leadership.<\/p>\n
And with that, the last domino fell.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jan 7 \u2013 For months now, Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been asked variations of the same question: \u201cWill you step down?\u201d But though he vowed to stay on as Liberal Party leader \u2013 despite deepening frustrations amongst voters and a political rival surging in the polls \u2013 even the self-described \u201cfighter\u201d could not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}