Transcript: Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau Announces Resignation

That’s why, this morning, I advised the Governor-General that we need a new session of Parliament. She has granted this request, and the House will now be prorogued until March 24th. Over the holidays, I’ve also had a chance to reflect and have had long talks with my family about our future.

Throughout the course of my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement. So last night over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I’m sharing with you today. I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process. Last night, I asked the President of the Liberal Party to begin that process.

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. My dear friends, as you know, I am a fighter. In my heart, I have always fought because I care deeply about Canadians, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interests of Canadians. And the fact is that, despite all the efforts made to get through, the Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what was the longest session of a minority parliament in the history of our country.

That is why this morning, I met with the Governor-General to let her know that we needed a new session of parliament. She agreed to my request, and the House will be extended until March 24. During the holidays, I also had the opportunity to think and have long conversations with my family about our future. Throughout my career, all the success that I have had personally is due to their support and encouragement.

So last night, at dinner, I shared with my children the decision that I am sharing with you all today. I have the intention of resigning from my position as head of the Liberal Party of Canada and Prime Minister once the party has chosen its next leader at the end of a national, rigorous and competitive process. Last night, I asked the party president to start the necessary steps. The country deserves a clear and real choice during the next elections.

It has become clear to me that if I have to focus on internal battles, I cannot be the best option during these elections. The Liberal Party of Canada is an important institution in the history of our great country and our democracy. A new prime minister and party leader will carry the values and ideas of the Liberal Party in the next election. I can’t wait to see the outcome of this process in the months to come.

We were elected for the third time in 2021 to strengthen the economy after the pandemic and to advance Canada’s interests in a complex world. And that is exactly what I will continue to do, what we will continue to do for Canadians. The Liberal Party of Canada is an important institution in the history of our great country and democracy. A new prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party will carry its values and ideals into that next election.

I’m excited to see the process unfold in the months ahead. We were elected for the third time in 2021 to strengthen the economy post-pandemic and advance Canada’s interests in a complicated world. And that is exactly the job that I and we will continue to do for Canadians. Thank you, Prime Minister.

Reporter Questions

REPORTER: We’ll now go to questions, starting with Laurence Martel, Radio-Canada. Hello, Mr. Trudeau. You wanted to do this battle against Pierre Poilievre. There have been internal battles in your party for several months now. Why did you decide to abdicate now? What made you change your mind?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: As you know, I’m not someone who backs down easily in the face of a battle, especially such an important battle for the party and for the country. But I’m doing this job because the interests of Canadians and the well-being of our country, of our democracy, are important to me. And it has become clear that I cannot be the leader in the next elections because of internal battles. As you all know, I am a fighter and I am not someone who backs away from a fight, particularly when a fight is as important as this one is. But I have always been driven by my love for Canada, by my desire to serve Canadians, and by what is in the best interests of Canadians.

And Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election. And it has become obvious to me with the internal battles that I cannot be the one to carry the liberal standard into the next election. In 2015, we were elected on a promise to work for the middle class in this country. And that’s what we were able to do.

We reduced poverty, we helped families enormously, we created an economy that works for everyone, and we are proud of it. We are proud of the fact that we were elected on a promise to work for the middle class. And that’s what we were able to do. We reduced poverty, we helped families enormously, we created an economy that works for everyone, and we are proud of it.

We are preparing ourselves for a brighter future, one where climate changes will have a bigger impact. We have worked enormously with Canadians. Canada is better because of the work that we have all done over the last few years.

REPORTER: A regret?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: I continue to think that if our electoral system had been changed, so that people could put a first, a second, a third choice on the ballot, parties would have spent more time looking at the points they had in common to be the second or third choice of voters, rather than looking at the polarization that we had. But I couldn’t unilaterally change our way of discussing in this country.

REPORTER: Next question.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: We got elected in 2015 to fight for the middle class, and that’s exactly what we’ve done over the past years. We reduced their taxes, we increased the benefits to families, we made sure the economy was focused on working for everyone and not just a few, and that has changed, that has dropped poverty rates in Canada, that has brought more people into the workforce, that has moved us forward on reconciliation in a way that has deeply improved the opportunities and success of Canadians, despite the incredibly difficult times the world is going through right now.

There’s lots more work to be done, and I know that this party and this country and Canadians will keep doing it. If I have one regret, particularly as we approach this election, well, there are probably many regrets that I will think of, but I do wish that we’d been able to change the way we elect our governments in this country, so that people could simply choose a second choice or a third choice on the same ballot, so that parties would spend more time trying to be people’s second or third choices, and people would have been looking for things they have in common instead of trying to polarize and divide Canadians against each other. I think in this time, figuring out how to pull together and find common ground remains something that is really important for democracies, but I could not change unilaterally, without the support of other parties, our electoral system. That wouldn’t have been responsible.

REPORTER: Next question. Toronto Star. Prime Minister, up until three weeks ago, you were intending to stay, and it seems that the event three weeks ago of Ms. Freeland coming out and saying you were firing her as your finance minister was the catalyst that brought us here today. So can you explain your side of what happened there?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: Chrystia has been by my side for close to 10 years now. She has been an incredible political partner through just about everything we have done as a government and as a party over the past decade. I had really hoped that she would agree to continue as my deputy prime minister and take on one of the most important files that not just this government but this country is facing, but she chose otherwise. In regards to what actually happened, I am not someone who is in the habit of sharing private conversations.

Chrystia has been by my side for close to 10 years now. She has been an essential political partner through just about everything we have done as a government and as a party over the past decade. I had really hoped that she would agree to continue as my deputy prime minister and take on one of the most important files that not just this government but this country is facing, but she chose otherwise. In regards to what actually happened, I am not someone who is in the habit of sharing private conversations.

REPORTER: You spoke about the Liberal Party as an institution and the internal battles right now, but I am wondering if you feel that another leader will have more success than you will at beating Pierre Poilievre in the next campaign.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: Pierre Poilievre’s vision for this country is not the right one for Canadians. Stopping the fight against climate change doesn’t make sense. Backing off on the values and strength in diversity that Canada has always worked to pull itself together on is not the right path for the country. Attacking journalists, the CBC institutions, that’s not what Canadians need in this moment. We need an ambitious, optimistic view of the future and Pierre Poilievre is not offering that.

I look forward to the fight as progressives across this country stand up for the kind of vision for a better country that Canadians have always carried, despite the tremendous pressures around the world to think smaller, to veer towards the hard right, and to be less ambitious for what we can be and do as a country when the world really needs Canada.

REPORTER: That’s not an answer though. Yes or no, is there another leader that could beat him?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: Absolutely.

REPORTER: On the leader?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: Yes. Pierre Poilievre has a profoundly small and erroneous vision for this country, even if we accept that he has a vision. Backing off on fundamental rights, stopping the fight against climate change, not investing in a greener, more inclusive economy, always looking for divisions between Canadians rather than gathering to face the future in an optimistic and ambitious way, that’s not a good choice for Canadians.

I look forward to continuing to be part of a progressive movement that will envision a better future for Canadians based on the optimism and the work that Canadians have always done to build a better world.

REPORTER: Next question. Hélène Buzetti, Le Devoir. Hello, Mr. Trudeau. Sixteen years ago, in December 2008, Stephen Harper rejected the Parliament to avoid a vote of confidence that he knew he was going to lose because the three opposition parties were going to vote against him. Exactly like the situation you are in today. At the time, the Liberal leader, Stéphane Dion, said, and I quote here, that it was an “obstruction to the Constitution and an affront to democracy.”

REPORTER: So I would like to know why what was bad for Stephen Harper’s Conservatives should be good for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: The Governor General, in 2008, had correctly concluded that the House had just formally trusted Mr. Harper’s government. Despite even a signed letter, which was a political document, the voice of the House matters.

However, before stopping working in the House for the holidays, we won three votes of no confidence, three votes of confidence. And we will have to re-test the confidence of the House as of March to pass the necessary budgetary elements to make the government work. In 2008, the Governor General correctly concluded that because the very last times in the previous weeks that the confidence of the House had been tested, it had passed that confidence test, Stephen Harper continued to have the confidence of the House. And it actually would bear out because as soon as they came back from the prorogation, Stephen Harper won a confidence vote once again.

So a political document or political speeches doesn’t carry the kind of weight that winning a confidence vote means. But this prorogation will take us only into March and there will be confidence votes in March in the passing of supply that will allow Parliament to weigh in on confidence in a way that is entirely in keeping with all the principles of democracy and the workings of our strong institutions.

REPORTER: But with respect, Mr. Trudeau, isn’t there something a little anti-democratic about suspending Parliament’s ability to express its lack of confidence while your party is looking for a savior? Shouldn’t it rather just refer to the voters and trigger an election right now?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU (in French): Hélène, I think you have very clearly seen, like everyone in the parliamentary press gallery, how much Parliament has not been functioning for several months now. We are stuck on a question of privilege. There are constant obstruction motions and we have been able to accomplish very little in recent months in Parliament.

Parliament needs a reset. It needs to calm down a bit to get back to work for Canadians and not to constantly play petty politics, which is what we are seeing from the Conservatives. So this reset has two elements. A prorogation so that we can start again with a fresh approach to Parliament.

And secondly, yes the Liberal Party will begin a leadership process because I expect that if it is not me who will lead the party in the next election, the polarization we are currently seeing in Parliament should also calm down a bit. Canadians need a Parliament that functions particularly in this complex moment and these two elements will represent the necessary reset for Parliament.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU (in English): I think over the past weeks, we’ve seen Parliament entirely caught up in obstruction and filibustering and a complete lack of productivity over these past weeks. Canadians are in the longest running minority government in history right now, and it is time for a reset. It’s time for the temperature to go down, for people to have a fresh start in this Parliament, to be able to navigate through these complex times, domestically and internationally. And the reset we’re having is actually two parts.

The first part is prorogation, but the other part is recognizing that by removing myself from the equation as the leader who will be fighting the next election for the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party should also lower the level of polarization we’re seeing right now in the House and in Canadian politics and allow people to focus on serving Canadians in that House and with their work, in the way that Canadians deserve.

REPORTER: We’ll take one last question. Good evening, Mr. Prime Minister. This is Stephanie Taylor from The National Post. As you said, there will be confidence votes in March. Opposition parties have said they were willing to take down your government. What odds do you think you’re giving your successor, given that there will only be a few weeks for them to introduce themselves to Canadians before potentially going into an election?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: I have an enormous amount of confidence in Canadians and in the interest of parliamentarians to serve Canadians in the right way. We are in a minority government right now and there hasn’t been active leadership in a minority government for over 50 years in this country. There will always be the challenge of having a leadership race while parliament will have confidence votes during the supply to government. That’s something that we will navigate through, but I really think that by removing the contention around my own continued leadership, we will have the opportunity to lower the temperature, to have a government that is focused on the complex problems that will be coming in the months to come, while parliament will have a fulsome national process that will bring people in from across the country and make a determination on the best person to carry the progressive liberal standard into the next election.

REPORTER: Can you tell us if there are any ministers who would want to campaign for your job who will have to leave cabinet? And how can the Liberal government protect Canadian businesses and Canadians from the threat of Donald Trump’s arrest when members of the government are going to be focused on who will take your job?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: The government and the cabinet will always be very focused on the work that Canadians elected us to do in 2021, which is to fight for their interests, to stand up for their well-being, and to make sure that they are good and that Canadians are protected and strong. There will be a leadership process and the rules will come out over the coming weeks, but I can assure you that the tools and the necessity to stand up for Canadians, to protect Canadians in their interests, and to continue to fight for the economy are things that everyone in this government will be singularly focused on.

I can point out that obviously the rules and the conditions of the leadership of the Liberal Party are going to be discussed in the weeks to come, but the government that was elected to protect Canadians and their interests in a very complex world, that was most recently elected in 2021, is going to continue that work with a singular focus and emphasis on what is in the best interests of Canadians while the party does what it needs to do to have a leadership process. Thank you very much.

REPORTER: That concludes today’s press conference. Thank you everyone. Thanks for being here on a beautiful day in Ottawa.

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