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OTTAWA — One day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was presented with a letter from some of his MPs asking for his resignation, he made crystal clear he is not going anywhere.
"Yes," he said, responding unequivocally to a question from a reporter if he would remain the prime minister after Oct. 28.
That is the deadline the dissident MPs gave for him to respond to their call for his resignation.
About two dozen MPs backed the letter amid concern that Trudeau's slumping popularity with Canadians will trigger a Liberal defeat in the next election. Only a handful of that group have publicly identified themselves.
After the meeting on Wednesday, Trudeau promised to reflect on what the MPs said. Still, he has remained defiant about quitting.
"So yeah, we're going to continue to have great conversations about what is the best way to take on Pierre Poilievre in the next election — but that'll happen with me as leader going into the next election," he said, as a group of Liberal MPs gathered at the press conference applauded.
The Liberals have watched their polling numbers slump and then plummet since Poilievre took over as Conservative leader two years ago. Recent polls suggest that if an election were held today, the Liberals stand to lose more than half their current seats.
Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, who recently announced he won't be seeking re-election after 30 years in politics, told reporters on Thursday the prime minister still has his full support and he is glad Trudeau is staying.
Some other MPs expressed disappointment that Trudeau didn't take longer to think about his decision after the meeting, or said they're not sure he has made a final call.
Wayne Long, a New Brunswick MP who has been calling publicly for Trudeau to resign since June, said he was "personally disappointed" that Trudeau came out with his response less than 20 hours after the caucus meeting ended.
"It's a pretty quick reflection and I think he should reflect more," said Long. "I expected him to reflect, or we expected him to reflect, for the weekend."
Sean Casey, the MP for Charlottetown, said he didn't think Trudeau felt he needed any time to think about it.
"I think his mind was made up," said Casey, who said earlier this week he had signed the letter.
Toronto MP Yvan Baker, who hasn't been clear whether he signed the letter or not, and Patrick Weiler, who did not confirm or deny reports he was one of the dissidents, both said they're not sure this is Trudeau's final answer.
"My expectation, and based on what I know of the prime minister and just based on what I know of the discussions that were held yesterday in caucus, is that he will take the time to reflect," said Baker.
Weiler said he wasn't surprised at Trudeau's response, suggesting that to open the door to leaving while he's thinking it over would make him an immediate "lame duck prime minister."
"I know the prime minister to be a very thoughtful person," Weiler said, adding that he is sure Trudeau will make the decision "that would be in the best interest of the party and the country."
Trudeau has been fending off questions about his future for months and has never wavered in his plan to lead the party into the next election, which must be held by next October but could come much sooner.
Multiple Liberals, including several close to the prime minister, have said he both relishes and excels when presented with a tough fight.
It's not clear what the MPs told Trudeau would happen if he doesn't resign before Oct. 28. The Liberals do not have a mechanism to force their leader to resign.
Both Long and Casey said voting non-confidence in the government is not on the table for them. Newfoundland MP Ken McDonald told reporters before Wednesday's meeting that voting non-confidence is always a tool available to MPs who disagree with the government, but that he is not considering it at this time.
Casey said voting non-confidence or sitting as an independent would just increase the odds of a Poilievre victory.
"To a person, every single colleague that I've talked to thinks that Pierre Poilievre in the prime minister's office would be a bad thing," he said. "Anything that we do that makes that more likely is dumb."
Outside of stepping down, many Liberals have been looking for the government to make some bold adjustments to unpopular policies, particularly around carbon pricing and immigration.
Trudeau moved last fall to adjust carbon pricing by taking the levy off heating oil purchases for three years. That was met with accusations he was politicizing the issue to appease voters in Atlantic Canada, where heating oil is more common.
On Thursday he announced the government is slashing targets for new permanent residents by more than 100,000 per year in each of the next three years.
He acknowledged the government didn't "get the balance quite right" between increasing immigration to fill post-pandemic labour shortages and controlling population growth at a manageable pace.
Immigration has sent Canada's population skyrocketing in the last two years without the housing, health care or social services to support it. It has been a big issue for MPs as they canvassed their constituents over the summer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
— With files from Alessia Passafiume
Comments
Even as this topic of Trudeau's leadership unprecedentedly reaches a head DESPITE the country being between elections OR without an accompanying "scandal" propelling such an action, why is it that NOT ONE report in the media has even mentioned this unusual context, this fact?
Because the "Convoy Party of Canada" led by Poilievre's unprecedentedly avid and RELENTLESS barrage of attacks for the last two years that are reminiscent more of "oppositional defiant disorder" than "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition" has finally succeeded in their goal of ultimately vilifying Trudeau personally, thereby finishing what the convoy itself kickstarted with its unprecedented act of parking massive trucks emblazoned with massive "F**k Trudeau" signs outside his office in Ottawa FOR THREE SOLID WEEKS, a spectacle so unusual that it stuck in the minds of the shamefully large number of politically complacent/disengaged/low-information voters mainly known for catching just the "news" headlines in their hands.
I mean, why ELSE would so many "protesters," people we are taught to hold in esteem for practicing one of our basic rights, have gone to such lengths?
So as usual, ZERO CONTEXT from the mainstream media we look to for JUST that.
Proof positive of how the definitively, proudly context-free right wing has captured the media.
Terrifying. Truly terrifying that this is happening and so few seem aware.
I m fascinated by the lemming pile on from old Liberal party warriors lately. McKenna and Axworthy dusted off and rolled out now.
Maybe they re right, maybe they have grievances but they offer no solutions nor is one obvious at this point. The best warrior they ve got is in position and yet they shoot at his back.
And no, I m not a Liberal, just a realist.
Too much memory of what life used to be in my youth, starting in the 40s. Where the cons are trying to take us again.
It could be different. L.B. Pearson suffered from been seeing as slightly weak in a macho 1960s House, even with his diplomatic accomplishments during the Suez crisis. Enter the NDP's Tommy Douglas who ruled Saskatchewan through, I believe, 21 successive balanced budgets while also taking on the powerful then private medical establishment to launch the public medical insurance program, the continent's first. Douglas won multiple elections for his bold policies that benefitted so many families.
Douglas threw the NDP's support behind Pearson to build Canada's basic universal public medical insurance coverage, something that continues to bind and identify us Canadians over 60 years later. Ditto CPP and EI. What a time that was!
It is very painful to see one ego now refusing to let go. Trudeau deserves a huge amount of credit for getting the nation through the pandemic in fairly good shape, better than a lot of other nations, and for starting the journey toward climate action after the Dark decade of Harper's Conservatives. On the first, he was slow off the mark and just 10 months prior had cancelled Canada's top notch global disease surveillance program, but he recovered quickly and scored some big contracts for vaccines that saved tens of thousands of lives. On the latter he is a slow walker and takes money from the fossil fuel industry and allowed one policy -- the carbon tax -- to dominate and therein be so easily targeted by the opposition. He could have build a green industrial base by now and electrified the national economy, things that Poilievre would be remarkably stupid to subject to his patented trash talk because thousands of jobs are to be had.
Today we do not have the rational, consensus-building mind of Pearson or the strong national vision and leadership of Douglas, who primarily dedicated his public office to helping the poor and disadvantaged. Instead we have an angry barbarian sieging the House and an ego that believes the public will give him one more term based on personality alone, which in the end couldn't survive multiple minority governments or the cutting points made by both climate critics and right wingers.
It's a sad day. But there is hope mainly in a narrow Kamala Harris win down south on November 5th and the continuation of a wide-scale industrial response to climate and renewables which will affect Canada deeply moving forward, and in the continued economic hammering by renewables on fossil field demand in the world. Trudeau may go down, but Poilievre is not prepared for these other realities. Even if Trump wins, renewables may only pause in their powerful ascendence based on competitive prices and growing performance, but mainly increase with America's competitors, namely China and Europe.
Poilievre doesn't figure much at all with these political and economic traits beyond our borders.
I remember that time, that feeling about the somewhat prissy Pearson, coming from a rural Diefenbaker Conservative family. He as all Liberals were held in some contempt, although there was also a supreme confidence in the fundamental decency of all senior politicians. It was an optimistic time, really. The new flag, Expo 67. Canadian pride out of nowhere.
I was astonished as I rose through education to discover what a powerhouse he was in the world.
I wish the current government had followed your direction and what I feel confident was the post harper people s will in building that green base. It s costing us.
But I disagree re pp. He has a talent for sinking to the bottom of anything and will take us with him if he s allowed the keys to Canada. Faster if Kamala, along with freedom and decency, loses in a few days. Canada is in an interesting position geographically that could become the site of many hotbeds in the 21st century. Canada s century, the twentieth, is over.