Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign after Liberal leadership race

Justin Trudeau, who has been facing increasing calls to step aside, said in Ottawa this morning he intends to step down as prime minister once the Liberal Party has chosen a new leader. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

What's happening: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’ll resign as Liberal Party leader and prime minister following a “competitive” leadership race to find his successor. On top of that, Parliament has been prorogued until March 24 — meaning MPs won’t meet again in the House of Commons for several weeks. At a news conference Monday morning, Trudeau said the country deserves “a real choice” in the next election and he can’t be the best option if he’s fighting "internal battles" — referencing the push from within his own party to oust him as Liberal leader.

What comes next: The Liberal Party will need to race to find Trudeau’s replacement. Prorogation buys the party time and staves off opposition parties toppling the government before the end of March, but it’s a tight window for a national contest. Nobody has officially thrown their hat into the ring to succeed Trudeau, but several names in the Liberal caucus and beyond have been circulating for months, including former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.

The Liberals’ legacy, in Trudeau’s words: The prime minister said his party had fought for Canada’s middle class, but added there’s more work to be done. Trudeau also said he wishes “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." A campaign promise Trudeau made in 2015 to eliminate first-past-the-post elections was never fulfilled.