VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he is focused on the job ahead after the governing Liberals lost another byelection, raising more questions about his ability to lead the party into the next federal election.
For the second time in recent months, the Liberals lost in a former stronghold when the Bloc Quebecois won the vote in Montreal’s LaSalle-Emard-Verdun constituency on Monday in a neck-and-neck race with the New Democratic Party.
“It would have been nicer if we could have won, of course… but there is still a lot of work to do,” Trudeau said in Ottawa.
“The most important thing is to make sure that Canadians understand the choice they have in the next election,” Trudeau said. “That’s the work we’ll continue to do.”
The Election Canada results showed that Bloc candidate Louis-Philippe Sauve won 28% of the vote. Liberal candidate Laura Palestini won 27.2%, finishing just 248 votes behind the winner. The NDP won 26.1%, finishing about 600 votes behind the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party has lost a byelection in a constituency it has held for years. In June, the Conservatives narrowly defeated the Liberals in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won all the seats in Toronto and almost all the seats on the island of Montreal in the last election.
Monday’s loss “is a big blow to the Liberals,” said Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“This is a constituency we would expect them to win under normal circumstances,” Beland said in an email. “Not only did they not, they lost by almost 16 percentage points in the popular vote compared to their score in the constituency in 2021, when they would have won there easily.”
Longtime Liberal Party supporter and strategist Andrew Perez posted on social media that the loss was “another nail in Justin Trudeau’s coffin.”
“If Trudeau’s Liberals cannot hold on to this safe seat, it will mean even greater problems for the party’s prospects in Quebec and across Canada in a crucial election year,” Perez said in a statement before the final vote.
Beland does not think Trudeau will step down as party leader before the next election, which is scheduled for next fall.
“Some liberals might try to convince him to resign, but it is not at all certain that he will do so,” Beland said.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne was asked on Tuesday whether Trudeau should remain prime minister.
Champagne said there is “concern and fear” among Canadian voters.
“They’re ready for a positive vision for the country,” he said. “I think if there’s anyone who can really inspire Canadians, it’s Justin Trudeau.
Most polls show the federal Conservatives far ahead of the Liberals. Trudeau is also very unpopular with many Canadians.
The NDP recently terminated its supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals, which helped keep the minority government in power, leading to speculation that an early federal election could be imminent.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has said his party plans to table a motion of no confidence “as soon as possible” in the hope of bringing down the Liberal government.
Neither the NDP nor the Bloc, a Quebec-based party committed to Quebec sovereignty, have said whether they will bring down the government.
Beland said it is difficult to predict whether early elections will take place.
“It seems like only the Conservatives want a federal election now so that the Bloc or the NDP can still decide to support the Liberals at the next confidence vote,” he said. “They (the Liberals) just need the support of one of these opposition parties to stay alive.”
In another byelection on Monday, the NDP retained its seat in Winnipeg in a race that was closer than previous votes, beating the Conservative candidate by 1,200 votes.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh called the decision “a great victory” on social media.
