Canada’s Trudeau faces setback as party loses crucial Montreal election

OTTAWA – Canada’s ruling Liberal Party lost a once-safe seat in a Montreal parliamentary constituency, preliminary results showed on Sept 17, a result likely to put more pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quit.

Elections Canada said that with 100 per cent of the votes counted in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun, Liberal candidate Laura Palestini had been beaten into second place by the separatist Bloc Quebecois candidate, Mr Louis-Philippe Sauve.

Ms Palestini received 27.2 per cent of the vote compared with 28 per cent for the Bloc’s Mr Sauve and 26.1 per cent for New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Craig Sauve. The election was held to replace a Liberal legislator who quit.

The result will put more focus on the political future of Mr Trudeau, who has become increasingly unpopular after almost nine years in office. The Liberals are trailing badly in the polls to the right-of-centre Conservatives, who blame Mr Trudeau for rising prices and a housing crisis.

Mr Trudeau insists he will lead the Liberals into an election that must be held by the end of October 2025, but some legislators have broken ranks to call for change at the top.

Ms Alexandra Mendes, a Liberal lawmaker who represents a Quebec constituency, said last week that many of her constituents wanted Mr Trudeau to go.

A senior Liberal, speaking shortly before the Montreal count, said Mr Trudeau would stay on regardless of the result.

The party also performed poorly in a second special election in Elmwood-Transcona, in the central province of Manitoba. The NDP retained the seat while the Liberals took only 5 per cent of the vote, compared with 15 per cent in the 2021 general election.

In that election, the Liberals won the Montreal seat with 43 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Bloc on 22 per cent and the NDP on 19 per cent.

Polls suggest that the Liberals will lose badly to the Conservatives of Mr Pierre Poilievre in the next federal election. A Leger poll last week put the Conservatives on 45 per cent of public support, a level of national support rarely seen in Canada, with the Liberals in second place with 25 per cent.

Mr Trudeau’s popularity has sagged as voters struggle with a surge in the cost of living and a housing crisis that has been fuelled in part by a spike in arrivals of temporary residents, including foreign students and workers.

In June, the Liberals lost a safe seat in a special election in Toronto.

Mr Poilievre is promising to axe a federal carbon tax he says is making life unaffordable, and last week vowed to cap immigration limits until more homes could be built.

Liberals concede the polls look grim, but say they will redouble efforts to portray Mr Poilievre as a supporter of the Make America Great Again movement of former US president Donald Trump as an election approaches.

Mr Poilievre, an acerbic career politician who often insults his opponents, also says he would defund CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster. In April, he was ejected from the House of Commons after he called Mr Trudeau “a wacko”. REUTERS