OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Liberals have lots to ponder after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal.
“Obviously, it’s never fun to come so close and not win a byelection,” Trudeau said this morning in French, a few hours after Elections Canada confirmed the Bloc Quebecois had defeated the Liberals in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun.
The Bloc’s Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes in the byelection. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
“I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take,” Trudeau said when asked what led to the Liberals’ loss.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold Verdun, but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters in English ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
He would not say whether this result puts his leadership in question.
“We know that we have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of people, in LaSalle and people across the country, who are worried about the situation they find themselves in,” Trudeau said in French.
At a press conference in his riding Tuesday morning, Sauvé confirmed to reporters that he still needs to end his existing employment, saying he had been cautiously optimistic about winning the riding.
The former Hill staffer pledged to have good constituency service, claiming Montrealers in Liberal ridings had turned to Bloc MPs after having shoddy service.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters his party won by highlighting Quebecers’ concerns on issues like immigration and medical assistance in death, an approach he said he’ll stick with in deciding how to vote on confidence votes.
The Bloc has said it expects a more important role in Parliament since the NDP ended an agreement with the Liberals that insulated the government from losing confidence votes. He said in French that the NDP and Liberals have become “toxic for each other” electorally.
He also said polling for the riding had been “a total mess” with shifting numbers in recent weeks, but he now has a bridge between the party’s riding off the island of Montreal and one in the city.
Blanchet noted in English that the riding has a large amount of anglophones.
“As I always said, an English Quebecer is as much (of) a Quebecer as I am. And I would dream of some of them saying ‘this idea of a country is not such a bad idea; let’s think about that; let’s discuss this,'” he said.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives narrowly defeated the Liberals in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
Ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting in Ottawa, Trudeau’s ministers put on brave faces and insisted they still support the prime minister, even as many acknowledged the tough climb ahead.
“These are not the results that we were looking for,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly.
She said there are “tough conversations” to be had and that Montrealers were clear on the doorstep that the government needs to do more to make life more affordable.
Others seem to stress the need to be more vocal at criticizing the Conservatives.
“I think one of the things that we actually need to be more effective at is talking to Canadians about what the alternatives are,” said Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.
“You can have (Conservative Leader Pierre) Poilievre and his austerity and cuts and his denial of climate change, or you can continue on with the work that we are doing from a policy perspective that most Canadians support.”
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters Tuesday that the Liberals have to do a better job communicating to Quebecers about that.
“It’s not the Bloc that can block the Conservatives,” he said in French.
Champagne said Trudeau doesn’t need to go, arguing he is the best person to deliver “a good dose of optimism” that the country needs.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further the party’s goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
The Conservatives weren’t a factor in the Montreal riding but had hoped to take down the NDP in Winnipeg. Poilievre tried to focus on the fact his party had a larger share of the vote in both byelections than in the last general election, though the Tories finished a very distant fourth in Montreal and second in Winnipeg.
He also called the results “devastating” for Trudeau.
“After 9 years, taxes up, costs up, crime’s up and time’s up,” he said on X.
Poilievre has not yet moved to table the non-confidence motion he has promised to bring against the Liberal government.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
