By David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil
OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce on Monday that he intends to step down as leader of the ruling Liberals after nine years in office but he will stay on in his post until the party chooses a replacement, CBC News reported.
Trudeau, under heavy pressure from Liberal legislators to quit amid polls showing the party will be crushed at the next election, is due to hold a press conference at 10:45 a.m. (1545 GMT) on Monday.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trudeau, 53, took office in November 2015 and won reelection twice, becoming one of Canada’s longest-serving prime ministers.
But his popularity started dipping two years ago amid public anger over high prices and a housing shortage, and his fortunes never recovered.
Polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the official opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October, regardless of who the leader is.
CTV, citing a government official, said Trudeau wanted to suspend the work of parliament until March 24 to allow the Liberals to run a leadership race.
That would mean he will be prime minister on Jan. 20 when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs that would cripple Canada’s economy.
Parliament was due to resume on Jan. 27 and opposition parties had vowed to bring down the government as soon as they could, most likely at the end of March.
But if Parliament does not return until March 24, the earliest they could present a non-confidence motion would be some time in May.
The Canadian dollar was trading 0.8% higher at 1.4325 to the U.S. dollar, or 69.81 U.S. cents, after touching its strongest intraday level since Dec. 17 at 1.4280. Analysts said that the prospect of greater political clarity helped underpin the currency.
Trudeau had until recently been able to fend off Liberal legislators worried about the polls and the loss of safe seats in two special elections last year.
But calls for him to step aside have soared since last month, when he tried to demote Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, one of his closest cabinet allies, after she pushed back against his proposals for more spending.
Freeland quit instead and penned a letter accusing Trudeau of “political gimmicks” rather than focusing on what was best for the country.
The Conservatives are led by Pierre Poilievre, a career politician who rose to prominence in early 2022 when he strongly supported truck drivers who took over the center of Ottawa as part of a protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
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