Will Trudeau quit his job as Canada’s prime minister?

Justin Trudeau has been in office for the better part of a decade but his popularity in the country has taken a major hit recently. Canada’s mounting problems have not made the prime minister's life easy as of late. 

For example, in November 2023, seven in ten Canadians told Ipsos pollsters it was time for Trudeau to step down as leader of the Liberal Party, a move that would also see him out as the country’s prime minister. 

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“I’ve never seen a number that high for a prime minister, probably since Brian Mulroney back in 1991, 1992. And that’s what this really reminds me of,” said Ipsos CEO Darrell Bricker according to Global News. 

Mulroney spent eight years leading Canadians but ultimately stepped down because of the unpopularity of his policies and became the most unpopular prime minister in history according to The Washington Post. 

“His policies, notably the 1989 free-trade agreement with the United States, are blamed for Canada's sour economy and double-digit unemployment rates,” wrote Post reporter Charles Truheart in February 1993. 

Photo Credit: By David Valdez, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain

A Gallup poll from the period included in Truheart’s reporting showed 49% of Canadians planned to support the Liberal Party at the time while only 16% of the country said that they would vote for Mulroney’s party. 

Mulroney’s situation in 1993 is eerily similar to that of what Trudeau is facing in 2024 as support for his party falls. Polling from Nanos Research published on March 7th showed the Liberals had a 20-point voting deficit. 

CTV News covered the Nanos Research polling and noted that if the election were held today Trudeau’s Liberals would only capture 23.3% of the vote while Pierre Polievre’s Conservative Party would net 42.8% of the vote. 

Moreover, March 10th polling from Abacus Data revealed that 58% of Canadians disapprove of the job Trudeau and his government are doing while only 26% support them. This is a big problem for the prime minister. 

Trudeau seems fated to follow a similar course as Mulroney but the prime minister isn’t planning on giving up power anytime soon according to a recent interview he gave with ICI Première during which he said he often thought about quitting. 

"I could not be the man I am and abandon the fight at this point," Trudeau explained to Alec Castonguay in French. Reuters translated Trudeau’s comments and reported that he laughed when asked about quitting. 

"I think about quitting every day,” Trudeau told Castonguay, adding: “It's a crazy job I'm doing, making the personal sacrifices… Of course, it's super tough, it's super not great at times,” the prime minister continued. 

Trudeau added that the path his government was on was so precarious and pointed out that democracies were under attack around the world, adding that the reason he joined politics was to fight the fight emerging. 

National Post reported that cost of living problems and housing problems have hurt the Liberals in the polls and allowed the Conservative Party to maintain its healthy lead over their rivals in the polls. 

Trudeau is also under pressure from seven of the country’s premiers and conservatives to pause a planned hike in Canada’s Carbon Tax, which is set to be upped to $15 per tonne as of April 1st. 

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The prime minister told ICI Première that he intends to move forward with the planned tax hike, a move that will likely only further degrade Trudeau’s popularity. “It is very easy in politics these days to attack a tax, to attack concrete measures,” Trudeau said.