Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is back in Ottawa but he returns to more calls not only from his MPs to step down, but at least two riding association presidents as well.
Global News confirmed that Quebec Liberal MPs called for Trudeau to step down, as first reported by iPolitics, following similar statements from the Liberals’ Atlantic and Ontario MPs.
Now, Mattie Prima, the president of the Willowdale Federal Liberals Riding Association, wants to see the same.
“I think that there comes a point with all leadership, there’s a way to gracefully say I’ve accomplished everything I’ve done and maybe it is time for a new leader,” Prima said.
The MP who represents the area, Ali Ehsassi, has also called for Trudeau’s resignation.
Prima went on to say that Ehsassi has been hearing similar calls from people in the riding, and the MP is “trying to get the party to be in line with what people are concerned about,” which Prima said includes inflation, housing, crime and food prices.
“It would be responsible on the prime minister’s part to say, ‘Maybe my time has come, maybe I should be supportive of something else,'” Prima said.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Taiaiako’n–Parkdale–High Park Federal Liberal Association Chair Derek Raymaker, who told Global News he believes Trudeau staying on is having a big impact on the party’s future.
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“The only reason that our party is threatened with oblivion right now is because the prime minister doesn’t want to leave,” he said. “It blows my mind that he cannot see that.”
Raymaker also expressed concern that he believed the party wasn’t ready to deal with the “challenges of 2025 and beyond,” saying there are “excellent political figures” in the Liberal movement who could lead Canada through “choppy waters” but is puzzled why the prime minister has not resigned to allow for a new leader.
A growing number of Liberal MPs have publicly urged Trudeau to resign since Chrystia Freeland abruptly stepped down as finance minister and deputy prime minister last month.
“I think as long as Trudeau doesn’t answer the questions about where he’s going, there’s just going to be more questions and more uncertainty and a desire to make things a bit more clear to everybody,” Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University, told Global News on Friday.
A Dec. 20 poll by Ipsos for Global News showed Trudeau just one point above former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in 2011, with only 23 per cent of Canadians saying they felt he deserved re-election. Nearly three-quarters said he should resign. That poll also showed the Liberals tied with the NDP at 20 per cent support, but an Angus Reid poll released 10 days later found the party at just 16 per cent support — the lowest level since 2014.
If the prime minister were to step down, Turnbull suggested it could change perspectives within caucus as well as those who may want to run for the Liberals in the next election.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if some people are thinking, ‘Yeah, OK, I’ll give it a shot if it’s another leader. But if it’s Trudeau, I’m not going to knock on doors again,'” she said.
The delay is also creating difficulty in the party communicating why they should receive another term in office and with an election looming, the Liberals need time to prepare, B.C. MP Ken Hardie said. Hardie has called for Trudeau’s resignation since mid-December.
“What do we do as a party to prepare ourselves and to make the argument that I’ve called for the party to be making now for a number of months, and that is to present the engaging argument as to why we actually deserve to be in government again after the election,” he told Global News.
Trudeau should prorogue Parliament, resign and then help in finding the next leadership, Hardie said, suggesting prorogation would also give the Liberals an eventual throne speech to present why the Liberals “should still be in government” after the next election.
—with files from Global News’ Sean Boynton and Touria Izri
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