Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he won’t resign as Liberal leader if his party loses the upcoming byelection in Montreal.
Montreal’s LaSalle–Émard–Verdun district will be holding a byelection on Sept. 16. It’s a seat Liberal MP and former Minister of Justice David Lametti had held since 2015. Lametti resigned at the end of January.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got to fight to lead against people who want to hurt this country, who want to hurt our communities, and who want to take the country in directions that, quite frankly, are exactly the opposite of where the world needs to go,” the prime minister said.
Montreal’s byelection is one of two set for Sept. 16. Winnipeg riding Elmwood–Transcona is also holding a vote. It was previously held by the NDP’s Daniel Blaikie, who quit in March to join Manitoba’s NDP government as a special adviser.
Trudeau said he was not about to leave politics just because things were getting difficult, saying his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, taught him to be strong.
“He raised some very, very tough kids, and we believe deeply in the kind of country that we need to keep building. And what kind of person would I be if I gave up because suddenly it gets harder, people don’t like me as much as they used to,” he said.
“I didn’t get into this job because I thought, ‘Boy, this is great. I'll be popular.’ No. You serve this country because you believe in Canadians. You believe in what we can build. You believe we can actually do as a country if we focus ourselves in the right way.”
Following that loss, Trudeau also said his party “has more hard work to do.”
The June byelection loss, combined with low polling numbers, led to some current and former Liberal MPs saying Trudeau should step down as leader, though many MPs said they don’t want to see him go.
Most recently, on the sidelines of the Liberal caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., Quebec Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès said “dozens and dozens” of her constituents say Trudeau should go. But other Liberal MPs put on a unified front coming out of the retreat, saying they support Trudeau.
The NDP also recently ended its supply-and-confidence agreement that kept the Liberal minority government in power in exchange for the Liberals passing key legislation sought by the NDP. This raises the prospect of an early election ahead of the October 2025 deadline, but both the NDP and Bloc Québécois have said they'll be looking at issues and confidence votes case by case, and haven’t indicated that they’re looking for an immediate election.
The Conservatives who have been leading in national polls, on the other hand, are eager to go to an election.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Sept. 11 that his party will put forward a non-confidence motion as soon as possible after Parliament resumes in the hopes of triggering an early election.
