Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rebuffed calls to step aside last week — but that doesn’t mean the disaffected Liberal MPs who called on him to quit have given up the fight.
Some of the MPs who said the prime minister should resign by today or face some unspecified consequences are now trying to push a secret ballot caucus vote on Trudeau’s future.
Some MPs say that if Trudeau won’t go willingly in the face of this caucus revolt, they want to try to force him out of the job another way.
They say the ballot question should be straightforward: “Should Justin Trudeau lead us into the next election?”
“Given the fact that there are quite a number of MPs, quite a number of Liberals and Canadians who feel that someone else should lead the Liberal Party into the next election, I think the way to move forward is to hold a secret ballot vote. I think that’s the best thing for the party and for the country,” Liberal MP Yvan Baker said.
Baker said it should be a secret ballot vote so MPs can vote “without fear of repercussions or consequences.”
“The prime minister and his team have said on a number of occasions that he enjoys the support of the vast majority of caucus. To me, that suggests he shouldn’t have any concerns about putting it to a secret ballot vote,” Baker said.
Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi agreed with Baker’s call for a secret ballot vote.
“A secret ballot would put this to rest. We need to have some finality to this. I think that would help us as a party move beyond this,” he said.
In an interview with CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live, Liberal MP Wayne Long also endorsed an internal vote on Trudeau’s future.
“We think a secret ballot would absolutely, once and for all, solve it, put it to bed,” he said.
“If everybody thinks they have major caucus support, then let’s just solve it. Let’s just go to a secret ballot and see what happens.”
Long insists Trudeau must go and has warned that, if he doesn’t, the party risks an ugly election result at the next vote.
“Show me a poll, show me anything that says that the prime minister can win this election,” Long said.
“If we don’t step in and make a solid change here, we’re going to allow [Conservative Leader] Pierre Poilievre to govern for the next one, two, three terms. That would be disastrous for our country.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership is on the line amid an internal revolt from 24 MPs, who have demanded he decide whether to stay or step down by Monday morning.
It’s not clear if these Liberal MPs can even stage a caucus vote.
Unlike the Conservative caucus, the Liberal caucus did not adopt the provisions of the 2015 Reform Act — legislation meant to make party leaders more accountable to their caucus members.
Under the act, if 20 per cent of caucus members sign a petition calling for a leadership review, a vote is triggered. If a majority of the MPs vote against the leader, they are forced to step down. This measure was used to oust former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole in 2022.
But the Reform Act states that parties must vote on whether to adopt its measures after each general election. The Liberals have never done so.
The Liberal Party does have a “leadership endorsement” ballot option built into its constitution.
This mechanism allows registered Liberals to vote on whether they still support the current leader at the party’s national convention — but the vote is only triggered if the party loses a general election.
Baker said the Reform Act shouldn’t hold MPs back from trying to hold a vote, adding it’s the democratic thing to do.
Trudeau said nothing publicly on the caucus pressure on Monday.
That may be because Trudeau has said repeatedly he’s not going anywhere, even after 24 of his own MPs signed a document calling for him to resign.
After losing two Liberal strongholds in recent byelections, Trudeau was also definitive about not leaving the top job.
In an interview with Inside the Village, an Ontario news podcast, that aired over the weekend, Trudeau said he’s “determined to lead this party into the next election” and that he’s “actually really excited about this fight.”
Trudeau said he won in 2015 despite some polls suggesting it would be an uphill battle and he can do it again in the next election.
“We pulled off something big by trusting Canadians, by putting forward a better, more responsible plan,” Trudeau said of 2015.
“To prejudge the outcome of an election already is something that I don’t think people would be too wise in doing.”
But Trudeau’s poll numbers are much lower now than they were nine years ago.
The CBC’s Poll Tracker has the Liberals down some 20 percentage points compared to the Conservatives.
Abacus Data pollster David Coletto published a poll Sunday that showed the Conservatives have an even bigger lead than that.
“The government’s approval rating is at the lowest it’s ever been,” Coletto said in an interview.
“And the prime minister himself, his negatives have never been as high. About 60 per cent of Canadians have a negative view and only 23 per cent have a positive view.”
