Some Liberal MPs repeat calls for Trudeau to quit after Freeland debacle — but he still has defenders
'He's delusional if he thinks we can continue like this,' says Liberal MP Wayne Long
Some Liberal MPs said Tuesday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can't carry on as party leader after the humiliation of Chrystia Freeland's public resignation from cabinet and another bruising byelection loss in B.C.
The calls for Trudeau to resign are coming from some of the same people who have said he should go in the past.
But some MPs who previously were on the fence — or even defended the prime minister in the past — are now coming forward to say it's time to turn the page on the Trudeau era.
Trudeau told disaffected MPs at a caucus meeting last night that he'd heard their concerns and would take time to think about his future. He's said that in the past, only to later decide to stay on to fight another day.
But the Liberals' byelection loss in B.C. last night might leave Trudeau with less room to manoeuvre.
The Conservative candidate won the seat by some 50 percentage points over the Liberal challenger — an embarrassing result, given the Liberals won that seat in the last general election.
One of the MPs now being more vocal about his desire for change at the top is B.C. Liberal MP Ken Hardie. He said Tuesday he "regrettably" believes the prime minister must resign and make room for another leader to take the party in a different direction.
Hardie said that while he was prepared to give Trudeau more time to try and restore his standing among Canadians, that just hasn't happened and it's time to go.
"The prime minister has not moved the needle," Hardie told the CBC News Network.
Hardie said the government has put forward some strong policies in recent months to address the challenges of our time, but they aren't resonating with Canadians because so many of them are just fed up with Trudeau.
"The Canadian people have been telling us for some time — the street has been talking to us — and they are saying this leader cannot be supported," he said.
"The prime minister just doesn't have the confidence of the Canadian people. The prime minister should resign and somebody new should take the party and the country forward."
Hardie follows Ontario MP Francis Drouin, who — after Freeland's shock resignation on Monday — said that Trudeau must step down. Drouin previously asked disaffected MPs to drop their efforts to push out the prime minister.
"I think he needs to go," Drouin said. "I've been a great defender but I don't see how we move forward."
Other sitting Liberal MPs — René Arseneault, Anthony Housefather, Patrick Weiler, Helena Jaczek and Chad Collins — have also gone public for the first time with their calls for Trudeau to step aside.
"I can say we're not united. There's still a number of our members who think we need a change in leadership and I'm one of them," Collins told reporters.
Freeland seen as a 'victim,' MP says
In a subsequent interview with CBC Radio's The Current, Collins said caucus gave the outgoing Freeland a standing ovation last night.
Collins said he and many of his fellow MPs see Freeland as "a victim" of the Prime Minister's Office's "political machinations" after Trudeau moved to shuffle her out of finance just days before she was due to deliver the fall economic statement.
Asked if Trudeau enjoys the confidence of his caucus, Collins said, "Absolutely not."
"If there is a secret ballot held in caucus, I think it would be overwhelming. I just don't think there's support there for the prime minister," he said.
Collins said Trudeau asked his MPs to stand by him through the fall, as the government implemented a plan to offer a GST rebate for two months and send $250 cheques to working Canadians in the hopes of a bump in the polls. That hasn't panned out, Collins said.
In an email sent to her staff Tuesday, Freeland said her decision to resign from cabinet rather than be shuffled to some other portfolio "was the right one."
"It will, of course, be a challenging few days, but this will not be the end of the road," Freeland wrote.
According to a Liberal source who spoke to Radio-Canada, Freeland was told by the prime minister in a Zoom call on Friday that she would be replaced as finance minister by former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on Tuesday.
But Carney had not agreed to the move when the PM raised it with Freeland, according to a source who spoke to CBC News. Both sources spoke on the condition they not be named.
Freeland has decided to stay on as a Liberal MP and run again in her Toronto-area seat in the next election — a possible sign that she might launch a leadership campaign of her own if Trudeau quits.
In the wake of Freeland's resignation, Trudeau has cancelled his year-end interviews with CBC News and other media outlets.
The prime minister's only public comments since Freeland quit cabinet have come during two separate holiday parties — one for Liberal donors on Monday and the other for Liberal staffers on Tuesday. During both events, he briefly referenced the turmoil inside caucus, but otherwise avoided the topic.
"Like most families, sometimes we have fights during the holidays. But like most families, we find our way through it," he said Tuesday.
Quebec MP Alexandra Mendès said she previously thought Trudeau should try and stay on and fight the next election, even though many of her constituents were asking her to push for his resignation.
Now, she's convinced he has to go.
"I was really affected by the way the minister of finance was treated," she said in an interview with CBC's Power & Politics.
P.E.I. MP Sean Casey said there are more MPs in caucus who think Trudeau should go than there were last week.
Casey said Freeland was "very popular" among some members of the Liberal caucus — she routinely phoned MPs and consulted with them on policy proposals — and how she was treated turned people off.
"Saying to someone on Friday you're going to be moved and then expecting her to deliver a statement she didn't believe in on Monday, that's rough treatment," he said.
Casey said more MPs will join the anti-Trudeau ranks in the coming days because some backbenchers are holding out hope they will be moved into his cabinet to fill some gaps after the recent spate of early retirements and resignations.
"I think it's much more likely some of these people will express those feelings once they're passed over," he said.
While he said he thinks the movement to oust Trudeau will likely grow, Casey added he's not holding out hope that the prime minister will actually leave his post in the face of this pressure.
"I think he's going to stay. Absolutely everything he says, everything he does, the level of energy that he puts into this day, all points in the same direction," Casey said.
Ontario MP Yvan Baker is another MP who wants Trudeau gone — and he's not convinced he will stay on.
Baker said he's pushing for him to go now because there's a chance he could leave in the face of caucus pressure.
"I believe it's really, really important that he steps down," Baker said. "It's in the best interest of the country and it's what our constituents are telling us."
New Brunswick MP Wayne Long has been leading the charge against Trudeau within caucus for months.
He said that, by his count, somewhere between 40 and 50 of the 153 sitting Liberal MPs want Trudeau to resign immediately, and there are more who think he should go but are keeping their opinions quiet. He said about 50 MPs are professed Trudeau loyalists who think he shouldn't go anywhere.
Trudeau is 'living in a false reality,' says Liberal
More importantly, Long said, most Canadians are done with Trudeau and he should read the writing on the wall.
If he stays on, the party is headed for an electoral disaster, he said, pointing to polls that suggest the Liberals have the support of about 20 per cent of Canadians.
"The prime minister is living in a false reality. He's delusional if he thinks we can continue like this. It's unfair to us MPs, it's unfair to the ministers and most importantly it's unfair to the country. We need to move on with a new direction and we need to reboot," Long told reporters on Parliament Hill.
"One in five Canadians are supporting us right now ... I don't know what more anybody would have to see to know it's time to move on. Those that are advising him, those that are surrounding him, are doing him a disservice."
Long said Freeland could be a viable leadership candidate if Trudeau packs it in.
He said other names on his shortlist as possible successors to Trudeau are Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Treasury Board President Anita Anand and Carney.
The remaining Trudeau defenders in caucus say the prime minister deserves to stay on even if it has been a tumultuous time for the party.
"I have confidence in the prime minister. He's a strong leader, he's focused on delivering for Canadians," said Ontario MP Yasir Naqvi.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the main focus should be on preparing Canada for expected tariff fight with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to slap a levy on all goods coming into the U.S. shortly after he takes office in the new year.
B.C. MP Joyce Murray, who served in Trudeau's cabinet before being shuffled out, said MPs should still be loyal to Trudeau.
"I think all of us should be loyal to the prime minister because he has done exactly what he laid out that he would do on behalf of Canadians over the last nine years," she told reporters.
Ontario MP James Maloney agreed, saying Trudeau has "done a remarkable job, continues to do a remarkable job. He has my confidence."
Other past Trudeau defenders were more muted than usual.
Ontario MP Judy Sgro, who has served in Parliament for 25 years, said Trudeau is "a smart man."
"If he feels he needs to make a decision in a different direction, that will be his decision to make and he will make it at an appropriate time," she said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was scathing in his criticism of Trudeau and his handling of the Freeland matter.
"Yesterday, we were reminded that if you hire clowns, you get a circus. But no one should be laughing because there are real consequences for yesterday's chaotic Liberal clown show," he told reporters.
Poilievre didn't just take issue with Trudeau's handling of his cabinet — he said the fall economic statement the government tabled yesterday included too much spending and, with a $62 billion deficit, blew well past previously set fiscal "guardrails."
"The world markets were watching," Poilievre said, pointing to the dropping value of the Canadian dollar.
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With a file from CBC's David Cochrane
