Trudeau finally announces resignation - much too late to be helpful

So, finally, Justin Trudeau has announced that he will resign his position as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and therefore as Prime Minster of the country.

After months of pressure from his own caucus, who see his unpopularity as a millstone around the party's neck (and a hindrance to their own re-election chances), he has done with his "reflecting on his future", and concluded that he has none. 

Supposedly, he wanted to make the announcement before the Liberal caucus meeting later this week so that it would look like he resigned on his own terms, not pushed out by disgruntled members of his own party. Except that everyone already knows - his caucus has made no secret of their feelings for many months now.

Unfortunately, it comes much too late. Everyone else except Trudeau knew that he should have gone a year ago. The Liberals are now 25% behind the Conservatives in the polls and, although a replacement for Trudeau might help that a bit, there is no way they can make up much ground before an election is called, which will come just as soon as the Conservatives (and the NDP for that matter) get another chance to engineer a confidence vote.

However, that won't happen until the end of March at the earliest, because Trudeau also prorogued Parliament until March 24th. All parliamentary activity, from the progress of existing bills to committeee work to in-house debate, will therefore cease for the next two-and-a-half months. And, of course, no confidence votes either.

This will buy the Liberals some time to elect a new leader (maybe - that would be a record short period for choosing a new party leader). But it will also mean that the country is rudderless and unprepared for the accession of Donald Trump in the USA on January 20th, and any wacko politics he introduces in his first few weeks. And there will be many, not least the potential imposition of a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports, as Trump has threatened.

How will we deal with that? Do we have to wait until April for a Canadian response? If Trudeau had resigned a year ago, when the writing was already on the wall, a new leader could be already in place and ready to deal with anything that America throws at us. Instead, we are going to end up with Poilievre here (eventually) and Trump there, a perfect storm of populist craziness.

And, in the meantime, as Trump assumes almost unlimited power in America, with Canada apparently firmly in his sights, we have ... nothing. No Prime Minister, no functioning government, and a bunch of cabinet ministers squabbling among themselves over who should replace Trudeau, with the added wildcard of potential replacements possibly having to resign their cabinet positions in order to even stand. 

Trudeau, in his hubris, has thrown his party, the country, and all those "hard-working Canadians" he professes to love so much, under the bus. If only he could have taken a leaf out of New Zealand's Jacinta Ardern's book. Oh, Canada!