Justin Trudeau resigns as party leader
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday announced he will resign as the leader of his Liberal Party. The announcement, which came against the backdrop of growing calls for the embattled prime minister to resign that increased after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who was the country’s deputy prime minister, stepped down from the government last month, will set the stage for national elections that must take place before Oct.
20. CNN notes polls show the Liberal Party would lose to the Conservative Party of which anti-LGBTQ MP Pierre Poilievre is the leader.
Trudeau became prime minister in 2015 when he defeated then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, was Canada’s prime minister from 1968-1979 and from 1980-1984.
The younger Trudeau is the first Canadian prime minister to have marched in a Pride parade. Canada in 2022 banned so-called conversion therapy, which Justin Trudeau described as a “hateful and harmful practice.” Justin Trudeau in 2017 also formally apologized to Canadians who suffered persecution and discrimination under the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws — including those convicted of “gross indecency” before Canada decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations — and policies “We have failed to (protect) LGBTQ2 communities, individuals time and time again,” he said. “It is with shame and sorrow and deep regret that the things we have done that I stand here today and say we were wrong, we apologize.
