Some lawmakers in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's own Liberal Party asked the leader not to run for a fourth term Wednesday, handing him one of the biggest tests of his political career.
Three Liberal members of Parliament said they were among a total of 20 plus lawmakers from the party to have signed a letter asking Trudeau to step down before the next election. There are 153 Liberals in Canada's House of Commons.
“He has to start listening, listening to the people,” said Ken McDonald, a Liberal Member of Parliament from Newfoundland who has signed the letter.
McDonald, who is not running again, said some of his colleagues who plan on running are nervous because of poor polling numbers. Also stating publicly that they had signed the letter were Wayne Long of New Brunswick and Sean Casey of Prince Edward Island.
Trudeau, who has said he plans to run again, smiled Wednesday as he headed into a meeting with Liberal lawmakers, but he didn’t offer any comment. His Cabinet ministers later supported him publicly.
“There is what would you call some palace drama going on right now. And that takes us away from the number one job, which is focusing on Canadians," said Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault, a Liberal Party member.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller, also a Liberal and a close friend of Trudeau, said Tuesday that anonymous griping about the prime minister was “garbage," but he softened his language on Wednesday as he left the meeting early.
“This is something that I think has been simmering for some time and it's important for people to get it out,” Miller said. “What happened in there, although it will remain confidential, is really about Members of Parliament telling the prime minister the truth whether he likes to hear it or not.”
Ontario Liberal lawmaker John McKay called the meeting a candid conversation and said it was up to Trudeau whether he would remain leader.
“It’s really important when you have so many colleagues expressing frustration, I’ve expressed frustration over the years at different times, it’s very important that feedback is listened to and it’s very important that ultimately there are some changes to respond to that,” said Nate Erskine-Smith, a Toronto Liberal member of Parliament.
Trudeau's Liberals recently suffered upsets in special elections in two districts in Toronto and Montreal that the party has held for years, raising doubts about Trudeau’s leadership.
The federal election could come any time between this fall and October 2025. The Liberals must rely on the support of at least one major party in Parliament as they don't have the majority of seats.
The opposition leader of the Bloc Québécois has said his party will work with the Conservatives and the New Democratic Party, of NDP, to bring the Liberals down and force an election if the government doesn’t boost pensions for seniors.
“The whole story is now: what will Justin Trudeau, superstar, do in the coming days,” Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Tuesday.
Tall and trim, Trudeau channeled the star power of his father in 2015 when he reasserted the country’s liberal identity in 2015 after almost 10 years of Conservative rule. But the son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is now in trouble. Canadians have been frustrated by the cost of living coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Liberals trail the opposition Conservatives 38% to 25% in the latest Nanos poll. The poll of 1,037 respondents has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
“The electoral prospects of the Liberals with Justin Trudeau at the helm look bleak,” said Daniel Béland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“Justin Trudeau lost most of his popularity a long time ago largely due to a number of affairs and his inability to explain his government’s policies. It’s very unlikely his popularity will bounce back dramatically at this stage," Béland said.
Trudeau’s legacy includes opening the doors wide to immigration. He also legalized cannabis and brought in a carbon tax intended to fight climate change.
“He saved the Liberals back in 2015 but, over time, he’s become a huge liability for them," Béland said.
