Despite a difficult 2023, Trudeau says he's not ready to 'walk away'

While it hasn't been a terrific year for the Liberal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has no intention of stepping aside.

Recent polls have placed the Liberals well behind the Conservatives in voter support.

But Trudeau told CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton in a year-end interview that he's determined to stay on as Liberal leader.

"With the challenges that people are facing right now, with the way the world is going now and everything that we are doing that's making positive differences in a very difficult time that isn't done yet, I wouldn't be the person I am and be willing to walk away from this right now," he said.

The prime minister touched on a number of issues and challenges in his interview with Barton.

Faced with internal pressure from members of his Atlantic caucus, Trudeau announced a carve-out for one of his key environmental policies in October.

The government is exempting heating oil from the federal carbon tax for three years. Trudeau said the move is meant to help those who currently use oil furnaces to hear their homes to switch to greener sources like electric heat pumps.

The exemption became a political flashpoint during the House of Commons' fall sitting, with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre claiming that Trudeau made the carbon tax the issue that will define the next election.

Asked if he was trying to save Liberal seats in Atlantic Canada, where 30 per cent of homeowners have oil furnaces, Trudeau maintained that the exemption is meant to give people more time to switch to heat pumps.

"Politics is about responding to people's problems and that doesn't mean that there wasn't deep, real policy concerns," he said.

The federal carbon tax applies in provinces and territories that don't have carbon pricing systems that Ottawa considers sufficient to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Households in those provinces receive a rebate to offset the tax.

Asked if his government has failed to communicate how the policy works, Trudeau said he'll continue to reach out to Canadians.

"It's always harder for a government to talk about its proposals than it is for an opposition party to critique them. That's the way our government, that's the way our democracy is set up," he said.

Foreign interference dominated the political arena in the first half of the year after a number of media reports — citing unnamed security sources and classified documents — accused China of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.