Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a change in leadership for Canada, North Korean missile tests amid South Korea’s political chaos, and the rise of the far right in Austria.
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The End of the Trudeau Era
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that he will step down as the leader of the long-ruling Liberal Party, ending his roughly decadelong reign at the helm of the party and the nation.
“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,” Trudeau said in front of his official residence in Ottawa.
Trudeau will also resign as prime minister once Liberal lawmakers select a new party leader to take on both roles. The succession battle could take weeks to determine, if not longer. Trudeau asked on Monday for Parliament to be suspended until March 26, after which the Liberal Party will likely face a vote of confidence. Under Canadian law, general elections need to occur by late October 2025.
“If Canada’s elections were held today, Trudeau would almost certainly cede power to Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre,” FP’s Allison Meakem wrote last week. According to CBC News polling released on Monday, the Conservatives hold a 24-point lead over the Liberal Party, with Poilievre raking in 44.2 percent versus Trudeau’s 20.1 percent. This gives the Conservative Party a 98 percent probability of winning a parliamentary majority.
The Liberal Party holds a minority of seats in Parliament and has had its influence tested several times. In September, the New Democratic Party pulled out of the ruling coalition and has since only supported Trudeau on a case-by-case basis. Public support for Trudeau has further declined over Canada’s housing crisis, which record-high immigration and an insufficient housing supply have exacerbated. In December, the Canadian dollar fell to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar since March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Calls for Trudeau to step down, however, began brewing in late October 2024, when Liberal members, speaking during a closed-door caucus meeting, urged the prime minister to resign to avoid a calamitous election defeat. But internal dissent climaxed in December, when then-Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland offered her surprise resignation.
In a published letter, Freeland accused Trudeau of favoring “political gimmicks” over what was best for the country. She argued that Ottawa must maintain fiscal reserves to prepare for a possible trade war with the United States; U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to impose tariffs on all imports from Canada starting on Day 1 of his term, despite both nations often being the other’s biggest trading partner. Trump has also criticized Ottawa’s economic dependence on Washington, repeatedly said that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, and referred to Trudeau as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.”
It is unclear who is among the top candidates to replace Trudeau. According to one source who spoke to Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, Trudeau has discussed whether new Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc should step in as an interim leader. However, other experts are looking to former Bank of Canada Gov. Mark Carney, who was supposed to replace Freeland before she unexpectedly quit.
Today’s Most Read
The World This Week
Tuesday, Jan. 7: Ghanaian President-elect John Dramani Mahama is inaugurated.
Wednesday, Jan. 8: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani visits Iran.
European Union foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas hosts Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
Thursday, Jan. 9: Lebanese parliamentarians convene to try to elect a president.
Friday, Jan. 10: Venezuela inaugurates its next president, a title that current President Nicolás Maduro claims to have won despite international pushback.
Saturday, Jan. 11: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken concludes his weeklong diplomatic trip to South Korea, Japan, France, Italy, and Vatican City.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concludes his multiday tour of Namibia, Congo, Chad, and Nigeria.
Sunday, Jan. 12: Comoros holds parliamentary elections.
Croatia holds its presidential election runoff.
What We’re Following
Missile launch. North Korea fired what appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Monday in its first such test in two months. The missile flew more than 680 miles, according to South Korea’s military, before crashing into the sea. Seoul quickly condemned the operation as a “clear act of provocation” at a time when South Korea is working to stabilize its own fragmented government.
Political chaos has roiled Seoul in recent weeks, beginning with a short-lived martial law order in early December and culminating in the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who now also faces separate criminal charges and an arrest warrant concerning the incident, which critics allege was an attempted insurrection.
Blinken met with acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok on Monday to reiterate the importance of the U.S.-South Korea relationship to ensure stability on the peninsula. He referenced North Korea’s launch while urging Seoul and its partners in Japan to continue sharing real-time missile data and to hold future trilateral military exercises.
Second attempt. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen gave Herbert Kickl, the leader of the anti-immigrant Freedom Party (FPO), the task of forming a new government on Monday. Van der Bellen first gave the mandate to then-Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in October 2024, as all other major parties initially refused to work with the Russia-friendly FPO, despite it winning the most seats during parliamentary elections in September.
That hard line is now gone, with Nehammer resigning on Saturday over his failure to achieve a deal and the new leader of his conservative Austrian People’s Party saying that its members would “not refuse talks with the FPO.” This puts Vienna one step closer to creating its first far-right-led government since World War II, in line with the rise of other populist leaders across Europe.
“I may have certain wishes, but respect for the voters requires that I accept this majority,” Van der Bellen, a progressive, said after meeting with Kickl. “I did not take this step lightly.” If new talks fail, then a snap election will likely be held.
West Bank shooting. Gunmen killed at least three Israelis and injured several others during a shooting on nearby vehicles, including a bus, in the West Bank on Monday. According to local authorities, the attack occurred along a major road used by both Israelis and Palestinians near the West Bank village of al-Funduq. It is unclear who was responsible, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “reach the despicable murderers and hold them, as well as anyone who assisted them, accountable,” adding that “no one will be spared.”
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in the nearby Kedumim settlement where two of the people killed also resided, called for an urgent cabinet meeting “to discuss a shift in strategy and to genuinely eradicate terrorism.” Smotrich has repeatedly called for Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank and has used inflammatory rhetoric to support Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 800 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry. Palestinian assaults on Israelis have killed at least 25 people in the West Bank during that same period.
Odds and Ends
On Monday, hundreds of students in Indonesia opened their lunch boxes to find rice, stir-fried vegetables, tempeh, chicken, and oranges—all of which they received for free. As of this week, more than 83 million students in Indonesia will begin receiving free school lunches and milk as part of a $28 million government project that aims to combat malnutrition and stunting, which afflicts 21.5 percent of all Indonesian children under age 5. The Free Nutritious Meal pledge was a key campaign promise made by President Prabowo Subianto.
The post Canada’s Trudeau Announces Intention to Resign as Prime Minister appeared first on Foreign Policy.
