Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is increasingly likely to announce he intends to step down.
However, he has not made a final decision, a source familiar with Trudeau’s thinking said on Sunday.
Trudeau’s departure would leave the party without a permanent head when polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the official opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October.
Sources said that they did not know definitely when Trudeau would announce his plans to leave but said they expect it would happen before an emergency meeting of Liberal legislators on Wednesday.
An increasing number of Liberal parliamentarians, alarmed by a series of gloomy polls, have publicly urged Trudeau to quit.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. The PM’s regularly published schedule for Monday said he would participate virtually in a cabinet committee meeting on Canada-US relations.
It remains unclear whether Trudeau will leave immediately or stay on as prime minister until a new Liberal leader is selected, the Globe and Mail report added.
Trudeau took over as Liberal leader in 2013 when the party was in deep trouble and had been reduced to third place in the House of Commons for the first time.
If he does resign, it would likely spur fresh calls for a quick election to put in place a stable government able to deal with the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump for the next four years.
