The Liberals have “a lot of work to do” after the party suffered a major byelection defeat in what has historically been a Montreal stronghold Monday night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
“It would’ve been nicer to win and hold Verdun but there’s more work to do but we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters outside a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.
Addressing questions over his leadership of the party, he said in French, “We have a lot of work to do and we’re going to continue to do it.”
Trudeau suffered a devastating electoral blow after the Liberals lost their stronghold of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun to the Bloc Québécois — the second loss of a stronghold this summer, after they suffered defeat in Toronto-St Paul’s in June.
When asked what went wrong for the Liberals, Trudeau said, “There’s all sorts of reflections to take on that but the big thing is to make sure Canadians understand the choice they get to make in the next election about the kind of country we are really matters and that’s the work we’re going to continue to do.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said the party “heard loud and clear” what the message from the electorate was.
“We heard loud and clear what the results last night (were). These are not the results that we were looking for,” she said.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said, “The sun’s going to rise tomorrow. It’s going to set tonight, and we intend to win it the next night.”
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François-Philippe Champagne, the innovation minister, said, “We need to be humble. You know, every time Canadians express themselves, we have to listen and be humble. I would say we need to redouble efforts as well to show that the Liberal team is the best thing to deliver for Quebeckers and making sure that their interests are well represented in Ottawa.”
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Champagne also said that Trudeau will continue as Liberal Leader.
“He’s been clear that he’s going to be our leader to the next election and we’re going to be working with him. We’re going to be putting the team and we look at the candidate we have been able to attract.”
Joly, Miller and Champagne all represent Quebec ridings, with Joly and Miller representing Montreal-area ones and Champagne representing a Shawinigan-area riding about two hours east up the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.
Anita Anand, President of the Treasury Board and a Greater Toronto Area MP, when asked if the Liberals could still win an election under Trudeau, said, “Yes, we can.”
Elections Canada reported all 187 polls early Tuesday, showing the Bloc won the seat just 248 votes ahead of the Liberals.
The Montreal seat opened up when former justice minister David Lametti left politics.
Just over one-third of Canadians (33 per cent) approve of the Trudeau government, according to an Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News and released on Monday. That approval rating is down by four points since the last time Ipsos did a similar poll in June.
Darrell Bricker, global CEO of Ipsos public affairs, said it’s not just the government message that’s unappealing to voters but the messenger — Trudeau.
“What we’ve heard from the government is that they were going to try and improve their popularity and their level of approval over the course of the summer, and that clearly hasn’t happened,” Bricker said in an interview with Global News.
At the same time, polling by Ipsos for Global News earlier this month also showed that a small majority of Canadians say they do not want an early election.
A federal election must take place under fixed election date laws no later than October 2025.
In another major byelection, the NDP held onto the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg. The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
The NDP won the night with 48.1 per cent of the vote. But Reynolds managed to grow the Tories’ share of the vote from 28 per cent in the 2021 general election to 44 per cent in Monday’s byelection.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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