Canada opposition leader announces resignation

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Ottawa, Dec 13 (AFP/APP): Canada’s Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, facing internal party divisions and a barrage of criticism for failing to unseat a weakened Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in October elections, announced Thursday he was stepping down.

“I just informed my colleagues in the Conservative caucus that I will be resigning as leader,” Scheer told the House of Commons, triggering a contest to succeed him only two years after he took on the role.

The party is “far too important for one individual,” he said, acknowledging internal strife and growing calls for him to quit but vowing to remain until a new leader is selected in the coming months.

Scheer’s surprise resignation, capping two months of pressure to quit, followed the completion of a review of the Conservatives’ campaign efforts that has not yet been released.

In parliament, other party leaders delivered brief remarks thanking Scheer for his public service.

Trudeau hugged him and shook his hand.

Reserved, fiscally prudent and a devout Catholic whose opposition to abortion and gay marriage goes against the Canadian grain, Scheer was largely an enigma at the start of the campaign, despite representing a district in Canada’s big-sky prairies since 2004.

During the campaign, described by Trudeau as one of the nastiest in Canadian history, Scheer painted himself as an everyman: a minivan-driving father of five who enjoys a beer, watching football (his wife’s younger brother plays in the Canadian Football League) and “The Simpsons” television series.

Assailing Trudeau daily for meddling in the prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin and a carbon tax that he said would hurt Canada’s energy sector, he often came across as irate.

The pace over six weeks, Scheer said, took a toll on his family and his wife Jill, whom he called “heroic.”

“In order to chart the course ahead, this party needs a leader who can give 100 percent to this effort.

So after a conversation with my kids, my loved ones, I felt it was time to put my family first,” he said.

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