Timeline: The highs and lows of Trudeau’s political life

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is stepping down as Liberal leader after almost a decade at the helm of the party.

Here is a timeline of Trudeau’s rise to party leadership and prime minister, and the events that led him to give it all up.

Oct. 14, 2008: Trudeau is elected as a Liberal member of Parliament in the Montreal riding of Papineau in a narrow victory over the Bloc Québécois. He served as an Opposition MP during the Conservative minority government.

April 5, 2009: Trudeau is named Liberal critic for youth and multiculturalism.

September 2010: Trudeau is appointed Liberal citizenship and immigration critic.

May 2, 2011: Trudeau wins re-election in his riding, but the Liberals fall to third-party status in greatest defeat the party had ever known historically. The party is left with only 34 seats, and for the first time is neither government nor official Opposition. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives formed a majority government with the New Democrats as the official Opposition. Michael Ignatieff resigns as leader and speculation about Trudeau running to replace him begins almost immediately.

Oct. 3, 2011: Trudeau says he ruled out running for Liberal leadership because he doesn’t want to spend more time away from his young family.

March 31, 2012: Trudeau takes part in a charity boxing match against Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau. Trudeau, considered an underdog, wins the fight.

Oct. 2, 2012: After a torrent of encouragement and positive polls, Trudeau announces he will join the Liberal leadership race after all. He announces his run at a rally in Montreal.

April 14, 2013: Trudeau wins the Liberal leadership with 80 per cent of the vote. He pledges to unite the party under his leadership.

Oct. 19, 2015: The Liberals make a massive electoral comeback, winning a majority government and making Trudeau the 23rd prime minister of Canada.

In his acceptance speech, he speaks about the power of a positive, hopeful message, quoting former Liberal prime minister Wilfred Laurier’s “sunny ways” philosophy. His platform included a promise to implement a price on carbon.

Nov. 4, 2015: Trudeau and his cabinet are sworn in by the Governor General, with Trudeau being deliberate about appointing the same number of men and women to cabinet posts.

July 20, 2016: The Liberals launch the Canada Child Benefit to replace Harper’s Universal Child Care Benefit. The new benefit is not taxable and is dependent on family income.

Dec. 20, 2017: Canada’s ethics commissioner finds several violations related to several private-island vacations offered to Trudeau and his family by the Aga Khan.

Oct. 23, 2018: Trudeau introduces the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, which would impose a revenue-neutral price on carbon for provinces that don’t already have one.

Feb. 7, 2019: The Globe and Mail reports that Trudeau’s office pressured then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the corruption and fraud prosecution of Montreal engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.

Both Wilson-Raybould and Treasury Board president Jane Philpott resign from cabinet in the aftermath of the story. Philpott expresses her lack of confidence over the government’s handling of the affair. Trudeau’s top aide, Gerald Butts, also resigns.

Sept. 18, 2019: In the middle of the general election, Time magazine reveals a past photo of Trudeau in brownface makeup. It was taken in 2001 during an Arabian Nights-themed gala at a private school where he was teaching at the time.

Two more images quickly surface as well, including one of a high-school aged Trudeau in blackface performing “Day-O,” a Jamaican folk song, and a video of Trudeau at an unidentified event in the ’90s.

Trudeau apologizes, saying he should have known better and that he heavily regrets doing it, and cannot recall how often he wore blackface in prior years.

Oct. 21, 2019: Canadian voters knock Trudeau’s Liberals down to a minority government.

Dec. 11, 2019: After a long and arduous negotiation, Trudeau’s government signs a revised North American free-trade deal with the United States and Mexico. The Liberals count the successful negotiation with U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration as a major win.

March 11, 2020: The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a global pandemic. Trudeau responds with a $1-billion package, including for surge capacity at provincial hospitals and extra surveillance at the National Microbiology Lab.

In the early days of the pandemic the government also moves to close borders and urges people to stay home and not interact with others in person to limit the spread of the virus. The Trudeau government also provides billions in domestic aid to help workers who were laid off and businesses stay afloat through closures.

July 27, 2021: Despite early criticism that the federal government is slow to bring the available COVID-19 vaccines to Canada, Trudeau announces that the country has enough doses to vaccinate every eligible Canadian months ahead of schedule.

Sept. 20, 2021: Trudeau’s Liberals pick up another five seats in the federal election, but fail to win a majority.

Oct. 6, 2021: Trudeau announces that public servants must be vaccinated, even if they work from home. He also announces vaccine mandates for passenger train and air travel.

Nov. 19, 2021: The Public Health Agency of Canada announces new border measures will be imposed in early 2022, requiring Canadian truck drivers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter the country in order to avoid quarantine rules.

Jan. 27, 2022: The first of the self-styled “Freedom Convoy” protesters roll into Ottawa with big rig trucks in a massive, three-week demonstration against COVID-19 mandates and Trudeau’s government. The crowds, trucks and police barriers gridlock the streets around Parliament Hill. Many of the protesters carry flags and signs with expletives directed at the prime minister.

Feb. 14, 2022: The federal government proclaims a public-order emergency under the Emergencies Act in response to the Ottawa protest, and similar ones at U.S.-Canada border crossings.

It’s the first time the law is invoked since it replaced the War Measures Act in 1988, giving the government extraordinary powers in its attempt to quell the protest, which eventually ends days later. A public inquiry would later deem Trudeau’s actions justified, though a Federal Court later disagreed.

March 22, 2022: Trudeau signs a supply-and-confidence deal with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. The political pact would see the NDP support the Liberals on key votes in the House of Commons in exchange for progress on priority policies like a national dental-care program and pharmacare legislation.

March 28, 2022: Canada signs child-care deals with all 13 provinces and territories to lower the cost of daycare, aiming for most families to pay no more than $10 a day.

Sept. 10, 2022: Pierre Poilievre wins the third Conservative leadership race held since Trudeau became prime minister. A central tenant of his platform is to “axe” the federal price on carbon.

Aug. 2, 2023: Trudeau announces he and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, his wife of 18 years, are separating. He would later say that he considered stepping down while he was experiencing difficulties in his marriage.

Dec. 13, 2023: The Liberals launch registration for a national dental-care program for low- and middle-income Canadians.

Sept. 4, 2024: Singh ends his supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals, making the government a true minority at far greater risk of being defeated.

June 24, 2024: The Liberals lose their long-held riding of Toronto—St. Paul in a byelection. The loss sparks calls from some party faithful for Trudeau to step aside as leader over fears about the party’s election prospects. In the days that follow, Trudeau says he plans to continue to lead his party.

Sept. 6, 2024: Liberal campaign director Jeremy Broadhurst resigns.

Sept. 16, 2024: The Liberals suffer another blow, losing a byelection in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun to the Bloc Québécois.

Oct. 11, 2024: Media reports reveal backbench MPs are trying to rally the Liberal caucus to ask Trudeau to step down as leader before the next election.

Oct. 23, 2024: The Liberal caucus meets, and Trudeau is confronted with a letter signed by at least two dozen MPs asking him to resign. He says he will not.

Dec. 16, 2024: Chrystia Freeland quits as finance minister and deputy prime minister, citing a dispute with Trudeau over fiscal prudence on the day she was to deliver a major economic update. She also says Trudeau had told her he was about to move her to a different cabinet post.

Dec. 23, 2024: A letter from the party’s Atlantic caucus urges Trudeau to step down, and calls for caucus consultation in the event of a leadership race. Individual MPs start to echo the call for Trudeau’s resignation, an interim leader or a full leadership contest.

Trudeau remains silent over the holidays.

Jan. 6, 2025: Trudeau announces he has asked Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to prorogue Parliament until March 24, and says he will step down as party leader once the Liberals have chosen a new leader in a national leadership race.

Trudeau says it’s become clear he cannot carry the party standard into the next federal election. He also says he told his children about his decision the previous evening over dinner.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2025.

The Canadian Press