Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday during a press conference in Ottawa. The move comes after the resignation of Canada’s Finance Minster, Chrystia Freeland, which sparked calls from both sides of the aisle for Trudeau to follow suit. Trudeau said he would remain as Prime Minister and party leader until he is replaced through a party election.

Trudeau has been Canada’s Prime Minster for nine years, though in recent years has become increasingly unpopular. According to CBC (Lean Left bias), a December 23 polling aggregate showed Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre leading Trudeau by 23 points. 

Voices on the left and right sought to explain the reasons behind Trudeau’s decrease in popularity in recent years, with both citing the increasing divide between Trudeau’s policies and the opinions of the Canadian people. Voices on the left focused on the recent rise of conservatism, while those on the right called the resignation another successful ousting of a far-leftist. 

An opinion published in the New York Post (Right bias) argued, “Throughout his nearly decade-long tenure, he abandoned true liberalism to become the standard bearer for progressive excesses: an overzealous champion of identity politics, DEI, government overreach and censorship. His immigration policies have opened borders to record-breaking floods of people from other countries — overwhelming government resources, creating a housing crisis where apartments in Toronto can cost more than even those in NYC, driving down the job market, and stretching the health care system to the brink.”

The Guardian (Left bias) published an article saying, “[Trudeau’s successor] will probably learn the hard lesson that the party’s fortunes aren’t primarily about anything so complicated as ideology or policy agendas at this point; rather, they’re a function of time and its inexorable march forward. And while it may be cold comfort today, the Liberals may be the beneficiaries of the iron law of time when it inevitably comes for their opponent, though they may have to wait a decade or so.”

A writer for The Blaze (Right bias) stated, “Trudeau's nine years in office have been marked by multiple blackface incidents and other personal scandals… While the Liberal Party wants to ditch Trudeau before the imminent federal election, it owns all of his failures — including his unlawful decision to use martial law in 2022 to crush the peaceful trucker protests — and it appears that Canadians are well aware.”

A Bloomberg (Lean Left bias) writer added, “They [The Conservative Party] blame Trudeau’s policy of more openness to immigration, his taxes on carbon emissions and higher government spending for making life more expensive, and vow to reverse course. Poilievre was quick to focus on inflation and housing even before he became the party’s leader more than two years ago, and he has been consistent about it.”