Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès says “dozens and dozens” of her constituents want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign as party leader.
“My constituents do not see Mr. Trudeau as the person who should lead the party into the next election, and that’s the message that I carry,” Mendès, a Quebec MP, said in a Sept. 9 interview with Radio-Canada.
“I didn’t hear it from two, three people. I heard it from dozens and dozens of people.”
Mendès said that she herself doesn’t want Trudeau to step down.
“If I want to finally meet the expectations of my voters in the slightest, yes, there would have to be a change of leader, but that is not my personal wish,” she said.
The MP for Brossard—La Prairie said many of her Liberal colleagues are hearing the same comments as her.
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Liberals have been trailing in the polls for the past few months, with Tories having a large lead over them. Earlier this year, the Liberals lost the Toronto—St. Paul’s riding to the Conservatives in a surprise development. The riding had been a Liberal stronghold for three decades.
However, many senior Liberal MPs have said they want Trudeau to stay on as leader.
“As I have said publicly many times, Prime Minister Trudeau has my full support,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in June.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has downplayed calls for Trudeau to step down, saying the byelection results are different than general elections and that they’re focused on the path ahead.
Trudeau himself has said he will be staying on as leader, and that the Toronto—St. Paul’s byelection loss was an opportunity for reflection and that they have more work to do.
“I’m focused on Canadians, I’ll let the other parties focus on politics,” he said during a press conference in Newfoundland and Labrador that day.
The party is now preparing for what could be a three-way battle with the Bloc Québécois and the NDP in Montreal’s LaSalle-Émard-Verdun riding, a Liberal stronghold with a federal byelection scheduled for Sept. 16.
The Liberal caucus is currently meeting in Nanaimo, B.C., for its annual retreat, a few days before Parliament reconvenes after the summer break.
The Canadian Press and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
