Toronto: Lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Party of Canada are scheduled to hold a crucial meeting on Wednesday that may decide the future of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In a letter sent out to all party MPs on Friday, the party’s national caucus chair Brenda Shanahan said the MPs will meet either in person or virtually on Wednesday. That meeting will be preceded by provincial and other caucus meetings on Monday and Tuesday.
Liberal Party caucus members from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the Atlantic region have already called for Trudeau to resign. MPs from other provinces have also joined in seeking Trudeau’s early departure. On Friday, Ben Carr became the first MP from Manitoba to make that opinion public. In a post on social media, he called for a “change in the leadership” of the ruling party.
Of the 153 party MPs in the House of Commons, over half have sought Trudeau’s resignation and that number could be approaching 100.
Trudeau returned to Ottawa on Friday after a skiing vacation in British Columbia over the holidays. He had said he would “reflect” on the options before him during this period but there was no statement from him. Sporting a beard, his only public appearance was at the United States Embassy where he signed a book of condolences in memory of late American President Jimmy Carter.
Party MPs are weighing multiple options: From electing an interim leader of replace Trudeau, to having him remain in place while the party commences a fresh leadership race. That latter step will require about four months and will entail the government proroguing Parliament to gain sufficient time for that purpose.
As it stands, Trudeau faces the prospect of a potential no confidence vote soon as the House of Commons returns on January 27. The opposition Conservative Party, and others, including the New Democratic Party (NDP), have publicly stated they will bring the government down.
The Conservatives lead the Liberals by over 20% in all recent surveys. In a fresh poll released on Friday, the non-profit Angus Reid Institute (ARI) indicated that former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, if made leader, would be best situated to challenge the Conservatives. Freeland’s shock resignation on December 16 precipitated the mounting calls from within the party for Trudeau to quit.
ARI said its data showed “that in an ironic twist, the person most likely to imbue the Liberals with some (though currently faint) hope in these dire electoral circumstances is the person who played a significant part in these challenges.” Under Trudeau, the party’s support has collapsed to 16%, but it could recover to over 20% under Freeland. Other contenders like former Bank of Canada (and Bank of England) Governor Mark Carney, Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly, Freeland’s replacement as Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Transport and Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand, an Indo-Canadian, hardly move the needle in a positive direction for the party.
