Some lawmakers in Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s own Liberal Party asked the leader not to run for a fourth term on Wednesday, handing him one of the biggest tests of his political career.
A smiling Trudeau said that Liberals are “strong and united” after meeting with Liberal members of parliament for three hours.
Three Liberals said they were among a total of more than 20 lawmakers from the party to have signed a letter asking Trudeau to step down before the next election.
Photo: REUTERS
There are 153 Liberals in Canada’s House of Commons.
“He has to start listening, listening to the people,” said Ken McDonald, a Liberal lawmaker from Newfoundland who said he signed the letter, which has not been made public.
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 previously has said he plans to run again, did not take questions from reporters after the meeting. No Canadian prime minister has won four straight terms in more than 100 years.
His Cabinet ministers have supported him publicly.
“There is what you would call some palace drama going on right now. And that takes us away from the No. 1 job, which is focusing on Canadians,” Canadian Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Randy Boissonnault said.
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 percent to 25 percent 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 situation of the Liberals in the opinion polls is likely to remain catastrophic. Unless something dramatic and unforeseen occurs, the electoral prospects of the Liberals with Justin Trudeau at the helm look bleak,” said Daniel Beland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal.
Trudeau’s legacy includes opening the doors wide to immigration. He also legalized cannabis and introduced 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,” Beland said.
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