Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday (January 6) that he intends to step down as leader of the ruling Liberals after nine years in office but he will stay on in his post until the party chooses a replacement, Reuters reports.
Trudeau has been under heavy pressure from Liberal legislators to quit amid polls showing the party will be crushed at the next election.
Trudeau, 53, took office in November 2015 and won reelection twice, becoming one of Canada's longest-serving prime ministers. His popularity started dipping two years ago amid public anger over high prices and a housing shortage, and his fortunes never recovered.
Polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the official opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October, regardless of who the leader is.
Liberal leadership races usually take months to arrange and even if the party speeds up the process, Trudeau will likely not be leaving office any time soon.
This means he will be prime minister on Jan. 20 when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs that would cripple Canada's economy.
The Canadian dollar CAD= was trading 0.8% higher at 1.4325 to the U.S. dollar, or 69.81 U.S. cents, after touching its strongest intraday level since Dec. 17 at 1.4280. Analysts said that the prospect of greater political clarity helped underpin the currency.
Trudeau had until recently been able to fend off Liberal legislators worried about the polls and the loss of safe seats in two special elections last year.
But calls for him to step aside have soared since last month, when he tried to demote Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, one of his closest cabinet allies, after she pushed back against his proposals for more spending.
Freeland quit instead and penned a letter accusing Trudeau of "political gimmicks" rather than focusing on what was best for the country.
