By suspending Parliament and promising to resign, the prime minister bought the Liberals time. But Canada will now face Donald J. Trump with a lame duck in charge.
Justin Trudeau’s announcement on Monday that he would resign was the last card that Canada’s deeply unpopular prime minister, who had set his party on course to lose a national election, had left to play.
The political levers he has pulled will give Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party a chance to reinvent itself without him. But they will also leave Canada weakened as it braces for President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has threatened the country with tariffs that could cripple its economy.
It appears to be a gamble that Mr. Trudeau is willing to take.
To allow his party’s thousands of members to choose his successor, a lengthy process that will involve campaigning, Mr. Trudeau suspended Parliament until March 24. A general election is expected to follow.
Holding a party leadership election before a general one is par for the course in countries with parliamentary systems like Canada’s. Suspending Parliament to hold such an election is far less common. By doing so, Mr. Trudeau wards off the likely collapse of his minority government and gives the Liberals time to choose a leader unburdened by his dismal poll numbers.
But it means that in two weeks, when Mr. Trump returns to the Oval Office, Mr. Trudeau will be leading Canada as a lame duck, weakening the country’s hand in crucial negotiations with its closest ally.