trudeau and martin both represented governments that had been in power for more than ten years, and resigned because they thought they were at a dead end.

that is probably not the case, here - this is trudeau's second election, he is young, and he would have a realistic chance of quickly winning another majority, should he want one. does he actually want one?

but, what is the actual rule, here? may is technically right, but she's maybe missing the point, as per usual.

what the governor-general is supposed to do is figure out who has the best chance at forming a stable government. the overriding concern is to prevent another election. the conservatives have no clear coalition partner, so allowing them to form a government would be necessitating an election within a year or two - which is what the governor-general is supposed to act to avoid.

it's going to depend on the strength of the minority. if trudeau needs bloc support to pass a budget (in addition to ndp and green support), and the conservatives have more seats, he should resign. but, if he can present a reasonably stable coalition to the governor-general, he should do so, regardless of who has more seats - because the conservatives will fall quickly, regardless.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-modern-canadian-convention-1.5324463

the liberals are supposed to do better than this