Canada: Trudeau resigns citing ‘internal battles’ in governing party

John Sudworth
Reporting from Ottawa

As a small group protests outside the PM’s office, a few bemused passers-by are looking on.

Among them is Hames Gamarra, from Burnaby in British Columbia, here with his young daughter. They’re visiting Ottawa for a few days.

“What’s happening?” he asks me. “Trudeau’s resigned,” I reply. “Oh, that’s politics,” he shoots back with a laugh.

Hames tells me he’d voted for Trudeau once before and, on balance, thinks things have been OK on his watch.

“I’m a carpenter,” he says. “I mind my own business, I get my wages, I pay the bills. It’s been ok.”

But Marise Cassivi is a local, from half-an-hour’s drive away in Cantley, Quebec. She’s heard the news already and is pleased.

“We were waiting and hoping for his resignation,” she tells me. “Why?” I ask. “Because of what’s going on in our country,” she responds.

“With his tax cuts before Christmas even my 16-year-old daughter said it’s very bad.”

I ask her if she feels it’s the end of an era.

“Oui!” she says definitively.

Any hint of sadness?

“No,” she says. “It’s the right thing.”