Justin Trudeau’s decision to step down as prime minister has rocked his struggling Liberal Party and sparked a leadership race that could determine the future – or demise – of Canada’s “natural governing party.”

On a freezing Monday morning, Trudeau said that “every bone in my body is telling me to fight,” but a procedural deadlock in Parliament and his dismal poll numbers meant there was no path forward to challenge a fourth term as leader.

His decision to step down from a post he has held for nearly a decade comes at a time when the party’s political fortunes are in free fall, suffering from the loss of key political strongholds in recent by-elections and the resignation of prominent cabinet ministers .

All opposition parties have vowed to topple Trudeau’s minority government if given the chance, and recent polls have shown the Liberals with 16% of the vote, marking the party’s worst pre-election margin in more than a century.

Looking ahead to the leadership contest, Trudeau’s dramatic transformation of the Liberal Party into a political entity closely aligned around its leader – and with no apparent heir – offers a glimpse into the challenge and damage faced by potential candidates vying for the top job The Prime Minister has delayed this process.

All politicians seek allies for advice and support, but Trudeau’s decision to surround himself with close friends in his inner circle was unusual and likely helped convince him that he could run effectively in the next election, even if public opinion suspected otherwise, said Lori Turnbull, the director of Dalhousie University’s school of public administration. Several ministers were present at his wedding reception and the current finance minister is his former babysitter.

“This is someone who has packed the house with his friends, people he trusts personally and who don’t want to do business with him. You have to be loyal to him. You have to be devoted to him. But he is not loyal and devoted to you,” she said.

Turnbull referred to his recent decision to oust Chrystia Freeland, his closest political ally, as finance minister after he failed to recruit former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney to replace him.

Freeland resigned in mid-December amid concerns about the appropriate response to Donald Trump’s threat of economic nationalism. In her sharp resignation letter, she accused Trudeau of “costly political games” and cast doubt on his understanding of the “gravity of the moment.”

“He will throw you away in a heartbeat because of what he wants to do … and yet he expects this completely undying loyalty from people,” Turnbull said. “Whoever inherits this chaos will only have a shell to work with. It’s in ruins.”

Trudeau’s decision to resign followed enormous pressure from lawmakers in his own party, including one who denounced the “small cabal” in the prime minister’s inner circle that was pursuing “a ruthless strategy of mutual political destruction.”

The reversal of his fortunes has been planned for years, as the public grew annoyed with a political figure whose historic surname – he is the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau -, good looks and charisma made him a global celebrity, or as a 2016 Vogue profile put it, the “new young face of Canadian politics.”

When he became leader of the Liberals in 2013, Trudeau inherited a party that had suffered a series of defeats. He quickly made changes – including a change in how party membership was handled – that effectively severed ties with a previous generation of party leaders. And he defied expectations by scuttling a three-party race for a surprise majority government.

But a leader seemingly attuned to the country’s mood has been embroiled in a series of personal scandals, including a family trip to the Aga Khan’s private island and missing the country’s first national Truth and Reconciliation Day for a surfing vacation. Three damning images of the Canadian prime minister in blackface and revelations that members of his family received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a charity to which his government recently awarded a major contract also undermined his carefully crafted public image.

Trudeau’s apparent inability to understand public outrage in each case offers an explanation for his continued refusal to resign and his apparent blindness to the growing discontent within his party and the broader public.

“Every day he was silent, he increased the number of voices saying, ‘You have to go.’ “His silence has diminished the impression that he made a decision of his own accord and that this delay has likely taken a shark-sized bite out of the prime minister’s legacy,” said Scott Reid, a political adviser and former communications director for former Liberal prime minister the Rev. Paul Martin .

“But the inherent confidence that it takes to be a successful prime minister, to be the kind of person who can compete to lead the country and always succeed, always leaves you vulnerable to a blind spot, especially when you recognizes that the end is near.” . And so what we thought was a political story about a man who revitalized his political party is now in jeopardy.

“Not only will he not be the hero of this story, but he could return (the Liberal Party) to the same dark place he discovered it – or worse.”