Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is bowing out of the race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader — making her the second cabinet minister to choose their current job over a chance to become prime minister.

Potential candidates have just two weeks to decide to run and potential voters less than three weeks to join the party in order to vote.

A senior government official said Ottawa has made no decisions yet on retaliation, and is not prepared to share the full list of items under consideration.

He also says Gov. Gen. Mary Simon has agreed with his request to prorogue Parliament until March 24.

Gerald Butts wrote in a Substack newsletter that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's surprise resignation from cabinet last week dealt Trudeau a staggering blow that loosened his already tenuous grip on the party.

The exact timing is very much up in the air, but the best bet is for the government to fall by late March, and then a general election day would fall in April or May, said Yaroslav Baran, co-founder of the Pendulum Group and former chief of staff to Conservative house leader Jay Hill.

Trudeau is moving to plug gaps in his front bench after several in cabinet have decided not to run again in the election next year but he is not moving around the big players on his team.

Trudeau's decision to demote Chrystia Freeland appears to have backfired spectacularly, igniting a chorus of calls for him to resign, including from several Liberal MPs, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the Toronto Star's editorial board.

The Liberal government was thrown into disarray this week when Chrystia Freeland stepped down from cabinet as finance minister, reviving calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down or call an election.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet on the day of the fall economic statement and Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced he won't run in the next election