Justin Trudeau stood on a podium in front of a crowd of supporters in October 2015 and pledged. “Sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways,” he said, echoing the words of Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian Prime Minister, more than a century ago.

The Liberal Party had just won a large majority in the Canadian Parliament TrudeauThe son of one of the country’s leading postwar leaders, he exuded a mood of progressive liberal optimism.

On Monday, in the midst of dark days of economic recession and political turmoil, he said He resigned from the leadership of his partya move that will end his term as prime minister and close the curtain on Trudeau’s final era in Canada.

Trudeau’s commitment to social issues, gender equality, indigenous rights and the fight against climate change has brought him global fame. Domestically, the story was different: years of political infighting, scandals and a cost-of-living crisis had eroded his credibility and ability to lead the G7 nation.

“Every bone in my body is always telling me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Monday.

But Canadians’ view of Trudeau — like that of his father, who himself served more than a decade in two terms as the country’s prime minister — has always been very mixed. Acclaimed by supporters as a role model Canada Due to his progressive values, he was disliked among conservatives, especially in the west of the country, where suspicion of political princes ran deep.

In recent months, that skepticism has become the prevailing view among a majority of Canadian voters, who have told pollsters that his term as leader should end.

Trudeau, 53, is leaving the political arena after months of pressure from within his party to resign. On Monday, he asked Governor General Marie Simon – King Charles’ representative in Canada – to suspend Parliament until March 24 so the party can choose a new leader.

“There will be a national leadership process over the coming weeks,” Trudeau said, without adding who he supports as his successor.

Canadian critics speculate that his former ally, former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland – whose scathing attack on Trudeau… She resigned From his government last month deepened his political danger – he could be among those who replace him. Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, said late Monday that he was considering a run for party leader.

But the first task for any new leader may simply be to prevent the party’s annihilation in an election that now looks likely in the coming months, with the opposition Conservative Party leading by a large margin in the polls.

With no clear succession plan and no date set for the next election, Canada is entering a period of political uncertainty as it deals with a volatile neighbour.

Trudeau unexpectedly tried to present himself as someone with experience in dealing with Donald Trump Flights to Mar-a-Lago In November after the incoming president threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian goods.

But Trump’s threats sparked panic in Ottawa and major export provinces like Alberta, and the president-elect proceeded to repeatedly mock Trudeau online — including after his resignation on Monday — and called the Canadian prime minister a “governor” of the United States’ “51st state.” United.

Aside from the political difficulties he faces at home, Trudeau’s resignation mirrors the fate of leaders of other Western democracies, where high inflation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about immigration have helped push incumbents from power.

Samra Saifi, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said Trudeau’s domestic reputation has suffered irreversibly from the backlash by low- and middle-income families against his pandemic policies and his mishandling of immigration policy that many voters believe has fueled the ability to vote. Pay housing costs. calamity.

The Liberal leader once praised Canada’s openness to immigrants and asylum seekers, and invited cameras to film him welcoming Syrian refugees at airports in 2015. In October, Trudeau pledged to curb immigration.

“Trudeau’s initial rise was built largely on his charisma and progressive image. However, over the years, his reputation has been undermined by perceived hypocrisy.”

Trudeau’s progressive policies have helped fuel opposition at home. He has promised ambitious action on climate change, and his federal government has imposed one of the toughest carbon taxes in the West, angering Conservatives in Alberta, the western province that is home to Canada’s lucrative oil industry.

In order to appease these opponents, the Trudeau government also supported — and financed — a massive oil pipeline running from Alberta to the West Coast. But their costs ballooned and did nothing to stop the western provinces from relentlessly attacking Trudeau over environmental regulation and policy that they said was stifling economic prosperity.

There have also been controversies that have eroded public trust, such as Trudeau’s 2017 vacation on the private island of philanthropist and spiritual leader Aga Khan. In 2019, allegations that he improperly intervened to water down a fraud investigation into Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin, now known as AtkinsRéalis, tarnished Trudeau’s moral authority.

Ultimately, Robert Asselin, Trudeau’s former economic adviser, said a combination of poor management, poor economic performance and policy incoherence led to his death.

“Trudeau approached the premiership as a storyteller and communicator, often leaving people with the impression that he was acting rather than governing,” Asselin said.

In the past 12 months, five ministers have resigned from Trudeau’s government and his Liberal Party has lost three safe seats.

Then came the Freeland bomb. She was once seen as a personal friend of the Prime Minister, but her searing resignation speech last month criticized the Prime Minister for his “expensive political tricks” to win public support, such as a sales tax holiday.

This rebuke put the leader who has won three federal elections on the line. Within days, the New Democratic Party, the Liberals’ parliamentary ally, called on Trudeau to resign and said they would no longer support the government in Parliament. The prime minister moved on Monday ahead of what appeared to be an inevitable no-confidence vote that would have collapsed his government and triggered a snap election.

Stephen Maher, author PrinceThe British newspaper The Independent, a biography of Trudeau, said the leader’s political arc reflects his remarkable self-belief, but also refers to the “presidentialism” of the role of Canadian prime minister.

“Trudeau only has one gear. There are politicians who are able to shift, transform and tell a different story to extend their shelf life. “Trudeau would say, ‘Hey, I’m here, love me,’ and it worked for about a decade,” Maher said.

A poll conducted by Angus Reid on December 30 showed that only 16 percent of voters would support his party, while the disapproval rate was 74 percent.

It seems very likely that his Liberal government — an election should be called sometime this year — will be replaced by a Conservative party led by Pierre Poilievre, a right-wing politician who is well ahead of Trudeau in the polls and who now also has the endorsement of Trump ally Elon Musk.

This could represent a sharp shift in Canadian politics, putting the country in the camp of Western democracies that are reeling from progressivism to a new era of economic populism and anti-immigration.

However, Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s principal secretary from 2015 to 2019, said he will be remembered as a leader who revived his Liberal Party from the “political trash can” after a decade in opposition.

“It was an amazing achievement,” he added. “The government is grinding you down, 10 years is a long time. He is not the first person in power whose upbeat personality has been eroded by the government.