Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate-conscious government bought Canada an oil pipeline while ushering in significant environmental laws

Justin Trudeau will step down as Canada’s prime minister after the Liberal Party picks a new leader, ending a near-decade of the most climate-conscious federal government in modern history.

Trudeau made the announcement on a chilly Ottawa morning outside his residence, Rideau Cottage. It ended months of speculation over his future, after dozens of his fellow caucus members have publicly called on him to resign so a new leader can be chosen.

“This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election,” he said on Monday.

Trudeau led the Liberal Party to a majority in 2015 and won two more elections as a minority government in 2019 and 2021. He has been prime minister for just over nine years, leading Canada through the first Trump administration and its re-negotiation of the North American free trade deal, and then the COVID-19 pandemic.

But for more than a year, he and his Liberal Party have sunk in the polls. After U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose severe tariffs on Canadian imports this fall, Trudeau’s former finance minister Chrystia Freeland found herself at odds with the prime minister over the best way forward for the country. Freeland abruptly quit her post in December, saying Trudeau had tried to replace her with former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, a presumed Liberal leadership contender. The move sent Trudeau into self-reflection mode over the holidays.

During their nine years in power the Trudeau Liberals have campaigned politically on fighting climate change and passed a number of climate-related laws, while also buying a massive pipeline project. According to a December 2024 estimate from Environment and Climate Change Canada, industrial emissions dropped to 694 million tonnes in 2023, the lowest level in 27 years, excluding the pandemic. The government said this is the result of its climate plan, as projections made in 2015 at the start of the Trudeau government were for Canada’s emissions to increase nine per cent by 2030.

Trudeau has “accomplished more on climate action than any other Canadian prime minister,” despite falling short in a number of areas, Climate Action Network Canada said Monday.
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