(The Lion) — After several years in which public opinion polls have battered Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has finally called it quits, at least as Liberal Party leader.

After his party selects a new leader via a caucus vote, it’s expected Trudeau will also relinquish the seals of the prime minister’s office.

Trudeau’s resignation makes official the rumors of his impending retirement, months after Donald Trump’s triumphant comeback presidential reelection highlighted a series of Canadian domestic mistakes by the ruling Liberal Party under Trudeau.

Melanie Joly, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, is expected to replace Trudeau as party leader, if not as prime minister, pending the outcome of federal elections in October, said the New York Times.

BBC reports that Pierre Poilievre, the Canadian Conservative Party leader, has been polling 24 points above Trudeau, signaling a major Liberal Party defeat in October.

Trudeau’s party faces significant questions: The economy is tepid; the election of Trump means more concessions on trade; immigration is a top issue for Canadian citizens just as it is for citizens in the U.S.; and Conservatives are promising Canadians tax relief.

Trudeau’s administration has also been rocked by scandals, including photos of him appearing in blackface and accusations of lavish vacations, tagging Trudeau as a progressive hypocrite.

“Whoever ascends to the leadership may well face snap elections, and there is a real risk that the party could fall to third or even fourth place,” Eurasia analyst Graeme Thompson told Canada’s GZero Media. “It also faces the stark choice between pivoting back towards the political center” or moving farther left.

Trudeau’s approval rating has been steadily moving downward since the COVID-19 crisis peaked in May 2020.

At the time, Trudeau enjoyed approval ratings of 55%, according to data supplied by the Angus Reid Institute.

By December 2022, Trudeau saw approval ratings plummet to 43%, then to 30% in December 2023, and finally to 22% by December 2024, according to Angus Reid data.

As Politico notes, Trudeau is just the latest political casualty of restless electorates around the world, including those of U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“The resignation marks a dismal finale for a political career that once saw Trudeau as a global celebrity nearly akin to former President Barack Obama,” said Politico.

Trudeau’s rise was always too much smoke and mirrors, explained Andrew Coyne at Canada’s Globe and Mail.

Coyne said that the Liberal Party hung on as the ruling party, even as it struggled in the minority, thanks in part to the media portrayal of Trudeau as the “Hippie King” of world politics.

The Times of India (TOI) called Trudeau’s demise “the cautionary tale of progressive politics.”

It was progressivism built for optics but not for policy success, noted the paper.

“His detractors argue that his leadership style prioritised grandstanding over governance,” added TOI. “They point to his focus on symbolic policies, like the ‘gender-neutral budget,’ as evidence of a leader disconnected from practical realities.”

Since the spring, Trudeau has been marked by unfavorable comparisons to President Joe Biden, who some think held on too long, putting his own personal political fortunes ahead of the country until his credibility was damaged beyond repair.

“It’s a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t scenario for Trudeau because it almost doesn’t matter what he does or says right now,” Quito Maggi, a pollster with Mainstreet Research told Politico in March 2024. “No one’s listening. It’s not the message: It’s the messenger.”

Conservatives may say otherwise, that it is probably both the progressive message, which no one believes in anymore; and the progressive messenger, who no one trusts.

“As the sun sets on [Trudeau’s] tenure, his departure will likely be framed as both a cautionary tale and an emblem of the challenges of leading in an ideologically divided world,” said TOI. “His resignation … may serve as the final act of a leader whose vision inspired millions but ultimately faltered under the weight of its own contradictions.”