'It was the right decision': Quebec politicians, residents react to Trudeau resignation

Elected officials in Quebec were quick to react to the major announcement in Ottawa Monday about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the path forward for the federal Liberal Party.

Elected officials in Quebec were quick to react to the major announcement in Ottawa Monday about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the path forward for the federal Liberal Party.

Trudeau said in an address from Rideau Cottage that he is stepping down as leader of the party and will remain prime minister until a new leader is chosen, citing "internal battles" within his own party as the reason for his decision.

Anthony Housefather, the Liberal MP for Mount Royal, publicly called on the prime minister to step down three weeks ago and on Monday he said Trudeau made the right choice.

"He made the right decision for the country and for the party," he told CTV News in an interview.

As an early federal election looms, Housefather said the Liberals needed to have an alternative to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who has been leading by a vast margin in the polls.

The calls for Trudeau to resign had been growing for months, but Housefather disagreed with the notion that the prime minister's decision came too late in the game.

"The Conservatives and the other parties will not have the election that they wanted, which was Justin Trudeau being the defining ballot issue for Canadians and Canadians looking past the other leaders and the policies that they offered and say, 'Well, we didn't want Justin Trudeau anymore,'" the Quebec MP said.