Alok Acharja

There are ups and downs in politics. There are successes and failures in politics. It cannot be said that someone who is extremely popular today will be just as popular tomorrow. The resignation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the beginning of the year is a significant in world politics. A few weeks ago, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned. She resigned after Trudeau asked her to take a less important position. Freeland was Canada's chief trade negotiator during the first Trump administration. She was also one of Trudeau's most trusted aides.

However, disagreements over the budget and potential US tariffs led to her resignation. Justin Trudeau is known as a fresh politician. When a list of popular politicians in the world is made, Justin Trudeau's name comes up among a few. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was at the top of the international political scene a decade ago. When he took charge of his own party, he was still a widely popular leader within the party.

But recently, Trudeau's popularity has been declining in one incident after another. And due to these, he resigned from the post of Prime Minister. He announced his resignation from the position of leader of the ruling party and Prime Minister before the end of his term. Judging by the situation, this is the best decision for Trudeau and there is still good time left for himself. Justin Trudeau was elected the 23rd Prime Minister of the country in 2015 as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. However, Trudeau's political history goes back many years. He was a supporter of the Liberal Party from a young age. After the death of his father, Trudeau became more involved in the Liberal Party from 2000. He was nominated for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 2007. In the 2008 federal election, he was elected to the House of Commons and appointed as a critic of the Liberal Party's Youth and Culture Department. The following year, he served as the critic of the Citizenship and Immigration Department. In 2011, he was appointed as the critic of the Secondary Education and Youth and Amateur Sports Department.

He has been in power in Canada for a long time. After Joe Clark, he took charge as the second youngest prime minister of Canada. Since then, he has handled the responsibility quite well. There has not been much criticism about Canada or Trudeau. However, some issues have caused criticism. Canada has always had good relations with India. But this situation deteriorated sharply last year. Relations between the two countries began to strain over the murder of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

That incident has a long history. And not much progress has been made. The comments of the newly elected US President Trump on Canada have also come under discussion. According to NDTV, a few hours after resigning, the newly elected US President Donald Trump expressed his desire to make Canada a state of the United States. Trump has made similar comments before. There was widespread discussion and criticism about the issue. The Trudeau government also faced criticism for this. After being elected as president, Trump announced that he would impose a 25 percent tax on all goods imported from Canada on the first day of taking office.

His position in his own party is also gradually weakening. However, these are not enough reasons for Trudeau's resignation. There are several other reasons. International media and analysts are, however, bringing forward various reasons. Some even want to put Trudeau's conflict with India as a reason for his resignation. Inflation also affected the lives of Canadians. The cost of living of the people increased dramatically. This also reduced Trudeau's popularity. In addition, his position on tackling the climate crisis, criticism of the federal budget proposal, which was also received within his own party, gradually played a role in reducing his time. In a special election in Toronto in June 2024, the Liberal Party lost one of its safest seats. In October, more than 20 Liberal Party lawmakers urged Trudeau not to run for a fourth term as prime minister. The Canadian general election is next October. This time, the Liberal Party will surely nominate someone to replace Trudeau. But the situation of Trudeau's party is actually not good.

It is assumed that the opposition party is going to come to power. All public opinion polls show that Prime Minister Trudeau's popularity has hit rock bottom. The party is now on the back foot on a variety of issues, from inflation to unemployment, Canada's deteriorating law and order situation, to the influence of people from outside the country. Trudeau had to step down to pull the party out of that. There was pressure from the party.

In his address to Canadians on Monday, Justin Trudeau said that the country's governor general has accepted his request to prorogue his parliament. Prorogue parliament means temporarily suspending parliamentary activities, where all activities including debates and votes will be closed, but the parliament will not be dissolved. According to opinion polls, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilivre is the frontrunner in the race to become the next prime minister of Canada. A poll says that if an election were held in Canada today, the opposition Conservative Party would easily win. Since taking over the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2022, he has become a fierce opponent of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and has repeatedly called for early elections. Polivre presents himself as an 'anti-elite' and 'anti-Trudeau' who represents ordinary people.

In April, during question and answer session in Parliament, he called Trudeau 'crazy' and 'extremist'. Later, he was expelled from Parliament for refusing to apologize for this statement. For now, it seems that the Liberal Party will have to fight hard in the next election. Some of Trudeau's wrong decisions and the situation have gradually gone against him. The party is more important than the individual. And Trudeau has stepped down from power at this time to give the party an opportunity to find a new leader so that it can prepare for the next election. However, it is not certain whether the responsibility of Canada will now rest with the Liberal Party. But the country is still in that direction. We have to see who is in charge of the party first. Who will come as the savior of the party in this difficult time?

The writer is a Essayist and Columnist Pabna.