Trudeau Says Canadians ‘Not in a Decision Mode’ Regarding Next Election

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau departs Ottawa on June 12, 2024, on route to Italy to attend the G7 Summit. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians are not ready to make their final decision on who should be next prime minister or leader of the Liberal Party while the party continues to face declines in the polls.

“Canadians are not in a decision mode right now,” Mr. Trudeau said during a wide-ranging interview with CBC on June 16.

“What you tell a pollster, if they ever manage to reach you, is very different from the choice Canadians end up making in an election campaign.”

Mr. Trudeau was responding to a question from Power & Politics host David Cochrane, who had asked him, “what if you are the reason the Liberals can’t beat the Conservatives in the next election?”

Mr. Trudeau said that during his attendance at the recent G7 conference he had spoken with other world leaders who said, like Canada, their citizens are also “struggling” with economic issues like high inflation, housing costs, and interest rates. He said while Canada has done better than other countries among several economic metrics, “that doesn’t make a difference to someone who can’t pay for their groceries.”

The prime minister said that while “people are everywhere facing a certain amount of frustration,” his government’s approach to solving challenges is superior to the “political vision from the Conservatives that so far consists of just making people more angry and saying everything is broken.”

“I know Canadians are pragmatic people who focus on solutions and that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing,” Mr. Trudeau said.

The Liberal Party has been trailing the Conservatives in the polls for several months, with the latest Abacus poll from June 16 showing the Tories have the support of 42 percent of voters, compared with 22 percent for the Liberals, and 19 percent for the NDP. The poll also found that 59 percent of voters have a negative impression of Mr. Trudeau, with 26 percent holding a positive view.

The next federal election is scheduled for October 2025, while the Liberal and NDP’s supply-and-confidence agreement has helped to keep Mr. Trudeau’s minority government in power following re-election in 2021. According to a Nanos poll from January, 46 percent of respondents said they wanted the next federal election to happen as soon as possible or sometime in 2024, while 33 percent of respondents said they'd prefer to wait until 2025, and 17 percent had no preference.

During the interview with CBC, Mr. Trudeau was also asked about an upcoming June 24 byelection in the Toronto riding of Toronto–St. Paul’s. Back in December 2023, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, who has held the riding since 1997, announced she was stepping down.

Mr. Trudeau said Ms. Bennett had been an “extraordinary leader in that community for so many years,” and that it is an important riding.

“People are getting out to the doors, people are working hard. We don’t take any corner of the country for credit for granted, no matter what our lead in the polls is,” he said.

Mr. Trudeau added that “every electoral contest is a must-win for any political party, and that’s what we’re going to be doing.”

The latest polling from Abacus Data in the Toronto–St. Paul’s riding shows that while the Liberals are ahead, it is by a much thinner margin than in past elections. The Liberals have held the riding since 1993.