Trenton, Canada, 07 Jan. 2025 (Anadolu News/BBC)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned Monday as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party, pushed out by fellow Liberal lawmakers.

It is an inglorious ending for a man who piloted Canadians for a decade and has politics in his blood. His late father Pierre Trudeau was prime minister twice, from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984.

Young Justin often accompanied his father on trips to countries around the globe, first as a child and then as a fledgling teenager.

Before entering politics, the young protégé worked as a teacher. He took the political plunge in 2008, winning as a Quebec Member of Parliament and subsequently becoming head of the party in 2013.

Rock star popularity

'My fellow Liberals, it is with great respect for those who have stood in this place before me, and great resolve to do the hard work required in front of us, that I accept, with humility, the confidence you have placed in me', Trudeau told those at the leadership convention.

Trudeau was buoyed by his party and Canadians, and he swept into power riding a groundswell of support in the 2015 election, and the new prime minister formed a majority government.

The handsome 43-year-old enjoyed a rock star popularity not only in Canada but wherever he traveled worldwide. His picture was on the cover of magazines as he basked in the limelight.

Trudeau said the election of his Liberals promised 'sunny ways' and 'sunny days' ahead for Canadians.

But change was in the wind four years later.

In 2019, he was re-elected, but with a minority, and led Canada through the COVID pandemic.

During the first two terms, he reformed the Senate and managed to renegotiate a free-trade agreement with the US and Mexico, no small feat with Donald Trump as the American president.

But in that 2019 election, Trudeau won with the lowest vote share for a party that formed a single-party minority government.

Erosion of power

In the 2021 election, the Liberals once again formed a fragile government, precarious enough that Trudeau hung on to power by signing what is called a 'supply and confidence agreement' with the New Democrat Party (NDP).

The support meant Trudeau had to bring in some legislation near and dear to the NDP, including a Canadian dental plan.

Meanwhile, his personal life took a downturn in 2023. The father of three – Xavier, born in 2007, Ella-Grace in 2009 and Hadrien in 2014 – separated from his wife Sophie in 2023 after 18 years of marriage.

It was an amicable split, at least publicly, with Trudeau saying 'we remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other'.

There was also turmoil in office.

As time wore on, Trudeau’s public popularity began to tank. Inflation was rampant and housing prices rose dramatically. Whether right or not, much of the blame for the maladies was directed at Trudeau.

One after the other public poll put the Conservatives under new leader Pierre Poilievre into a double-digit lead over Trudeau and the Liberals.

Lawmakers in Trudeau’s own party began to turn on him, finally culminating in his decision to resign.

Trudeau said infighting within the party more and more pushed him to resign and he said it meant that he could not remain as leader of the Liberals.

'I cannot be the best option', he said Monday in announcing his resignation, 'due to internal battles. I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal banner into the next election'.

His legacy will be written with some asterisks.

Economic, political headwinds

Trudeau has been an enigma, trying to do what he believes to be right but being forced to pivot by public opinion.

Syria is an example.

While the regime of despot ruler Bashar al-Assad has finally been ousted in Syria, the future there is unclear, as it has been for decades.

Trudeau and Canada stepped forward to help in 2015 and resettled 25,000 Syrian refugees in little over three months.

But over the past year or so, the Trudeau government was forced to bow to pressure as Canadians voiced their displeasure with too many foreign asylum seekers and refugees entering the country.

In the Israeli-Hamas war, Trudeau joined other leaders calling for a cease-fire, and he ordered an end to new weapons being sent from Canada to Israel. Still, it is said that arms continued to flow to Israel under existing export permits.

Trudeau signed on to the Paris climate agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. But in Canada, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who may well become prime minister if public polls prove true, has pushed his 'Axe the Tax' agenda on the carbon tax policy enacted by Trudeau, saying it is too costly.

And there have been unnecessary missteps that have wounded Trudeau.

Canada has been a robust supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia, but on Sept. 22, 2023, Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian-Canadian who fought for the Nazis in the Second World War, was invited to the House of Commons and received applause with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy present. It was not Trudeau’s fault, since Hunka was invited to attend by the House of Commons speaker, who was forced to resign, but it was an embarrassment for the government.

So what is next for the 53-year-old Trudeau?  He is being mum on the subject, so it is anybody’s guess.

According to a BBC report, Justin Trudeau's nine years as Canadian prime minister is coming to an end after he announced he will step down as leader of the governing Liberal Party.

It means his party must now find a new leader to compete in a general election in which polls suggest they are heading to defeat.

Here are some of the people expected to enter the Liberal leadership race.

Former Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland

The Toronto member of parliament became one of the most well-known members of Trudeau's team and is seen as one of the top contenders to replace the outgoing leader.

While she had long been seen as a trusted senior official in his inner circle, a rift with the prime minister's office led to her recent abrupt resignation in December.

Her criticism of Trudeau in her public resignation letter piled the pressure on him and made his departure seem inevitable.

Born to a Ukrainian mother in the western province of Alberta, the 56-year-old was a journalist before entering politics.

Former central banker Mark Carney

Mark Carney - the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England - said on Monday he is "considering" entering the race.

He told the UK's Financial Times newspaper: "I'll be considering this decision closely with my family over the coming days."

Trudeau himself admitted that he had long been trying to recruit Mr Carney to his team, most recently as finance minister.

"He would be an outstanding addition at a time when Canadians need good people to step up in politics," he told reporters on the sidelines of a Nato conference in July 2024.

Mr Carney, 59, who has been serving in recent months as a special economics adviser to Trudeau, has long been considered a contender for the top job, though the Harvard graduate has never held public office.

He also brings with him expertise on environmental matters through his role as the United Nations special envoy on climate action, recently calling the goal of net zero "the greatest commercial opportunity of our time".

Anita Anand, Transport Minister

Anand is often touted as one of the more ambitious members of the Liberal caucus.

The 57-year-old lawyer entered the political scene in 2019 when she was elected to represent the riding of Oakville, just outside of Toronto.

An Oxford-educated academic, she has a background in financial market regulation and corporate governance.

She was immediately awarded the ministerial brief of public services and procurement, putting her at the helm of a mission to secure vaccines and personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.

Anand was then appointed minister of defence in 2021, leading Canada's efforts to provide aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia and overseeing a personnel crisis at the Canadian Armed Forces mired by sexual misconduct scandals.

When Anand was shuffled out of that department to oversee the Treasury Board, many saw it as a demotion and critics of Trudeau went as far as to speculate that it was punishment for her ambitions to one day lead the party.

In December, she was moved again during a cabinet shuffle, into the role of transport minister and minister of internal trade.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

The former businessman and international trade specialist is another Liberal minister said to be eyeing the party's top job.

But his journey through the ranks to a major portfolio was slower than Anand's.

Champagne, 54, entered the Commons in 2015 but since then has gone through international trade, foreign affairs and most recently the department of innovation, science and industry.

But there are several things that work in his favour. Champagne is from Quebec, a province whose voice has often been consequential in federal Canadian elections.

He has also been dubbed "Canada's Energizer Bunny" by some pundits, who have watched his enthusiasm as he travelled around the world under his innovation portfolio with a mission to sell all that is Canada-made.

And because of his business acumen, political watchers see him as a viable option for luring centrist Liberals back into the fold.

Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Like Trudeau, Joly represents a Montreal-area riding.

To foreign leaders, the 45-year-old is a familiar face, having represented Canada on the world stage since 2021.

As the current foreign minister, she has taken several trips to Ukraine in a show of Canada's support. She travelled to Jordan to aid in the evacuation of Canadian citizens in the region when the Israel-Hamas war erupted.

Joly has also been at the heart of some of the government's greatest foreign policy challenges, including the diplomatic crisis sparked by the alleged assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil by Indian agents.

The Oxford-educated lawyer is a well-connected francophone politician who previously ran for mayor of Montreal.

She was tapped by Trudeau personally to run for a federal job in politics.