Justin Trudeau could announce his resignation as early as Monday, two leading Canadian newspapers reported, after a worsening leadership crisis caused the prime minister to lose support within his party.

The Globe and Mail newspaper quoted three sources as saying that Trudeau, 53, would step down as leader of the ruling Liberal Party after nearly a decade in office.

It said one of the sources had recently spoken to the prime minister and believed he intended to resign ahead of an emergency meeting of party members on Wednesday, “so it doesn’t look like he has been forced to resign by his own MPs.” .

The Toronto Star said it also confirmed that Trudeau “will signal his intention to resign as early as Monday,” citing what it said was a senior source.

Trudeau’s popularity has plummeted amid record inflation, an acute housing crisis, high food prices and voter fatigue with incumbent politicians. Recent polls showed the Liberals reaching 16% support, their worst primary vote in more than a century, with the opposition Conservatives in the lead.

In late October, nearly two dozen Liberal backbenchers signed a letter calling on Trudeau to resign as the party feared a heavy electoral defeat in the federal election scheduled for next year.

His political horizon darkened in mid-December with the shocking resignation of his deputy Chrystia Freeland, who addressed the prime minister with stern words and questioned his ability to lead Canada through Donald Trump’s “America first” economic nationalism, including a threat of 25% Tariffs on Canada.

“We must take this threat extremely seriously,” she said in a suicide note, asking whether the government understood the “focus of the moment.”

Freeland, a former Financial Times reporter, had previously won praise for steering the renegotiation process of the North American Free Trade Agreement during Trump’s first term.

The resignation of a key ally plunged Ottawa into chaos and the fallout led the smaller New Democratic Party, which had kept the Liberals in power, to withdraw its support for the prime minister.

Trudeau had tried to appease the new U.S. president with a visit to Florida, where they posed for a smiling photo, and he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that he had promised Trump that Canada would strengthen border security.

But days later, Trump publicly mocked Trudeau, disparaging him as the “governor” of Canada, as if his country was merely a U.S. state and not an independent nation, and mused that it could become part of the United States.

Many Canadian observers now expect elections to be held in the spring. It is unclear whether Trudeau would remain prime minister until a new Liberal leader is elected.

The former high school teacher and eldest son of Pierre Trudeau, one of Canada’s best-known prime ministers, became leader of the Liberals in 2013 when the party was also struggling, and his leadership was seen abroad as an example of stable, progressive power.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reiterated his calls for an immediate election, saying: “The government of Canada itself is spiraling out of control.”