Liberal MP says her constituents are 'very adamant' Justin Trudeau needs to go
'I heard it from dozens and dozens of people — he's no longer the right leader,' Alexandra Mendes says
Quebec Liberal MP Alexandra Mendes said Monday she's heard from "dozens and dozens" of constituents over the summer telling her it's time for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step aside after nearly nine years at the top.
Speaking to Radio-Canada, CBC's French-language service, on the sidelines of the Liberal caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., Mendes said her constituents are "very adamant the prime minister needs to go."
She said while she's personally fine with Trudeau staying on as prime minister, "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."
"I didn't hear it from two, three people. I heard it from dozens and dozens of people," Mendes said. "He's no longer the right leader."
Mendes is one of a small number of Liberal MPs who have been willing to speak out publicly about ongoing dissatisfaction with Trudeau and his leadership.
Asked if she thinks the party would be better off with Trudeau gone, Mendes said: "Yes, that's what I would deduct from all the comments that I heard.
"It's not the Liberal Party per se that is the cause. It's really the leadership of the prime minister."
Mendes is a long-time Liberal.
After working for a federal Liberal cabinet minister, Mendes was elected as an MP in 2008 representing Montreal's south shore. She lost to an NDP candidate in the Orange Wave that swept over Quebec in the 2011 election.
After that defeat, she served in a senior party role as president of the Quebec chapter of the Liberal Party of Canada. She was returned to Parliament in the 2015 campaign and has served ever since.
Mendes said it "saddens" her to hear the anti-Trudeau sentiment.
"It saddens me that the prime minister isn't being given the credit he deserves for the many, many wonderful things he did, or very good transformative things he did for Canada," she said. "But, on the other hand, if I listen to my constituents, which is supposedly what we're meant to do, yes, I have to say we would have to change leadership."
If Trudeau isn't willing to go, Mendes said, the party needs to get better at communicating what she describes as its many successes.
In recent fundraising emails to supporters, the party has been touting the Canada Child Benefit, a program to reduce daycare fees, interest-free loans for students, a housing program the government claims will spur the creation of nearly four million homes, and ongoing work to stand up national pharmacare and dental care programs.
But the Liberal Party hasn't launched a national advertising campaign like the one the cash-rich Conservatives have been running in recent months.
Mendes said many Canadians simply don't know about the government's accomplishments over the past nine years.
Mendes said that, given how little the public knows about the Liberal record, she's "not confident" the party can win the next general election.
"I'm not even sure Canadians will be listening to us," she said.
Mendes said she will make her constituents' position known to the prime minister when she and other MPs come face to face with him and the cabinet tomorrow for the first Liberal caucus meeting in months.
Some MPs were calling for such a meeting weeks earlier, but the party's caucus chair Brenda Shanahan said it wasn't possible because of "scheduling logistics."
Mendes said she's expecting other MPs to raise similar concerns after a tumultuous summer that saw the party lose a byelection in Toronto-St. Paul's — a one-time Liberal stronghold the party had held for more than 30 years before Conservative candidate Don Stewart won it in June. Some Toronto voters said they saw the byelection as a referendum on Trudeau.
The party is facing other challenges as well. Its national campaign director quit last week and the NDP ended the supply-and-confidence agreement that has propped up the Liberal government for the last two-plus years.
The party is also in a three-way fight with the Bloc Québécois and the NDP to hold LaSalle-Emard-Verdun, a once solidly Liberal riding in Montreal, on Sept. 16.
In a later interview with CBC's Power & Politics, Mendes said it would be a "very, very negative message, for sure," if the party loses that seat.
"If that's what happens, I guess we'll have a reckoning once the dust settles," she said, adding that she and other Montreal Liberals are doing all that they can to send candidate Laura Palestini to Parliament.
The Liberals aren't expected to be competitive in another upcoming byelection in the Winnipeg-area riding of Elmwood-Transcona.
While some Liberal MPs are growing restless as the party's fortunes wane, others lined up Monday to defend Trudeau ahead of their meeting with him at the retreat.
"We have tremendous confidence that the prime minister is still the best person we have in that room to lead us. I think with three election wins, he's earned the right to go out on his own terms. I always compare it to football, as an old football coach. You don't bench the starting quarterback after winning three Super Bowls in a row," said Jamie Battiste, who represents the Nova Scotia riding of Sydney—Victoria.
"All we can do is focus on what Canadians are asking from us, what are the biggest issues that Canadians are facing in our areas, and how can we improve that for them and show them that we're a government that's delivering."
Another Nova Scotia MP, Kody Blois, also signalled he's willing to stand behind the prime minister.
"If he says he has the ability to stay on, I'll go into battle with the PM," he said.
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