Justin Trudeau

Justin Pierre James Trudeau^[c] (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament (MP) for Papineau from 2008 until 2025.

Trudeau was born in Ottawa, Ontario, during the first premiership of his father, Pierre Trudeau, and attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from McGill University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia. After graduating, he taught at the secondary school level in Vancouver before returning to Montreal in 2002 to further his studies. He was chair for the youth charity Katimavik and director of the not-for-profit Canadian Avalanche Association. In 2006, he was appointed as chair of the Liberal Party's Task Force on Youth Renewal. In the 2008 federal election, he was elected to represent the riding of Papineau in the House of Commons. He was the Liberal Party's Official Opposition critic for youth and multiculturalism in 2009; in 2010, he became critic for citizenship and immigration. In 2011, he was appointed as a critic for secondary education and sport. In 2013, Trudeau was elected as the leader of the Liberal Party. He then led the party to a majority government in the 2015 federal election, bringing the party back from a third place finish in the previous election. He became the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history and the first to be the child of a previous prime minister.

After taking office, Trudeau resettled Syrian refugees displaced by the Syrian civil war, established the Canada Child Benefit, legalized medical assistance in dying, legalized recreational marijuana, pursued Senate reform through the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, and implemented a federal carbon tax. In foreign policy, Trudeau's government signed the Paris Agreement on climate change, negotiated trade deals such as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and navigated the extradition case of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou along with the related detention and eventual release of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. Trudeau was twice found in violation of conflict of interest law by Canada's ethics commissioner, first in the Aga Khan affair and later in the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Trudeau's Liberal Party was reduced to a minority government in the 2019 federal election. He then led Canada through the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession with financial aid programs, vaccination rollouts, and military support. His government also introduced a ban on "assault-style" firearms in the aftermath of the 2020 Nova Scotia attacks and established a national $10-a-day child care program. Trudeau faced a third ethics investigation for his role in the WE Charity scandal, but was cleared of wrongdoing. The Liberals won another minority government in the 2021 federal election. In 2022, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history in response to the Freedom Convoy protests and responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. That March, his party entered a confidence and supply agreement with the New Democratic Party (NDP), which produced the Canadian Dental Care Plan and a framework for national pharmacare; the NDP withdrew from the agreement in September 2024. In Trudeau's final days in office, he implemented 25% tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods in retaliation for near-universal tariffs imposed by U.S. president Donald Trump.

Following a steady decline in popular support and a political crisis triggered by the sudden resignation of deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland in December 2024, Trudeau announced in January 2025 that he would resign as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party. He advised the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until March 24, while the party held a leadership election. Trudeau remained Liberal leader until Mark Carney was elected as his replacement on March 9. He resigned as prime minister five days later and stood down as an MP at the federal election held shortly afterwards.
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