Longtime Liberal MP Wayne Long says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should give more weight to the views of his backbenchers in determining his future leading the Party, rather than relying on those in his immediate orbit.
“Seriously, get away from your inner circle,” Long told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday. “I don’t want to name names, but get away from people, because obviously, prime ministers are somewhat insulated.”
Those sources also told CTV News at least two dozen MPs told Trudeau they’d like him to step aside during the meeting, over the course of the first ninety minutes.
But in a press conference fewer than 18 hours later, Trudeau was adamant he’s running again, a statement which caught some in his caucus, including Long, by surprise.
“I think we had hoped for serious reflection,” he told Kapelos. “Reflection in 18 hours tells me the Prime Minister, with respect, already had his mind made up.”
So, if, hypothetically, Trudeau were to bow out now, who would replace him? I’m not aware of any strong candidates, although that might be due to my ignorance rather than their absence.
Mark Carney would be my choice. He’s got the trust of Canadians and the name brand that people are already familiar with.
I don’t know if he’s available or willing tho.
Never heard of him.
Doesn’t say anything about his ability to rule, it’s just the first time I’ve heard the name.
He is a former governor of the Bank of Canada, 2008-13. Many Canadians trust him because he got us through the recession in pretty good shape and was always honest with us.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Carney?origin=serp_auto
Thank you, I was a wee teenager when he was in office, which is probably why I don’t know him.
Hopefully it isn’t too long ago and the younger demographic will know who he is.
At least biden knew he would cost the election.
Jt is handing it to the cons.
Fucking idiot.
There is nothing the liberals can do to alter the next election. They have 10 years of baggage and a different face isn’t going to change how the electorate feels about that. First past the post will ensure the liberals don’t form a government after the next election.
I think I saw some poll data showing that the problem is mostly him and people would vote LPC with a new leadership.
It would have to be an outsider candidate, and the LPC party structure does not do well with outsiders.
If you’ve ever experienced dealing with the LPC, you can see why: they’re primary composed of compulsive board-of-directors members. Every Liberal representative and most of the party and riding executives are all from the same incestuous BoD members. They encounter each other all the time in their professional circles: they’re on the committee for this, the board for that, the council for something else, the executive director for fill in the blank. They know each other because they’re each other’s lawyers, estate agents, consultants and so forth.
They’re so socially inbred that it’s incredibly difficult for an outsider to break in.
And before you say “All politicians are like this”, they aren’t:
- the NDP is getting this way, but they’re not there yet; with the weakening of organized labour, more of them are from the Director class, but a lot are still union folk and a few are student radicals. They’re nowhere near as institutionalized as the Liberals
- the Cons are composed of a mix of small-business douchebags and grifter-ideologues (sometimes in the same body!). It’s actually pretty easy to break into the CPC: just have money and be a loud, obnoxious dick; support is something you can buy.
- the Greens are pretty much split between true-believers that don’t like the NDP’s professionalism, and grifters that are working a green angle for their next scam. Again, easy to break into if you’re loud enough. (side note, it’s scary how many failed Green candidates pivot to the Conservatives).
Compared to the above, the Liberals place a much, much higher value on consensus and favour-trading, and have a visceral reaction against outsiders.
By Liberal standards, Trudeau is an outsider candidate. What the LPC wanted was a Dionne or Ignatieff.
Nice explanation. Honestly, I’m not rooting for an LPC revival. I tolerate but am not a fan of their half-measure policies. I’m only interested in their numbers as far as blocking PP from office. Unfortunately NDP don’t seem to be gaining anything from LPC’s drop in the polls. I don’t know what would take for the NDP to change this.
As we’re seeing in the US now, and the in the UK with the ratfucking of Jeremy Corbyn, the owners of the mainstream media are not interested in covering actual left-wing values. Singh isn’t great–I preferred Angus–but anything progressive he says will either get laundered by the media, or ignored completely
What just happened with the LA Times and the Washington Post vis a vis endorsing Harris should be a warning sign to progressives everywhere: the media, or at least it’s owners, are already in the tank for the political right. It doesn’t matter how much you try to be serious or sensible: the mass media will ignore or belittle you, while they throw softballs to the Conservatives.
It’s especially an issue in Canada, where media ownership consolidation is worse than it is in the US.
This isn’t to let the NDP off the hook: they need someone like Bernie Sanders, someone willing to bang the class-war drum, but what they’re getting are consensus-builders who aren’t much better than Trudeau et al.
I gotta say, these processes you describe that affect the media and other things become so clear when you look at reality through the class war lens. Things that get muddy when looking through the left/right lens.
That’s the frustrating part. He’s willing to sell out the nation to pad his own ego, and sentence us to another fucked up Con gov’t.
Seems Sophie was on to something.
Libs need a divorce from jt.
I’ve always wondered if him choosing to run again was the cause of that.
I’m holding out hope that he might step down at the last minute like Biden did. Biden was also very against the idea until suddenly he wasn’t
If the MPs are serious about this they should leave the party, sit as independents, and vote against the Government on a confidence motion.
If Trudeau is so bad it is time to nut up or shut up.
Politics doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Everybody not with them, including Jagmeet Singh, recognize that the Conservative party will be a disaster for Canada. It will put the lives of real people at risk. That’s why ideological moves like what you’re describing hasn’t happened. Politics affects real people in the real world.
All this letter did is give the MPs something for their constituents to demonstrate “at least I tried”. This is nothing but MPs desperately clinging to their jobs, not desperately trying to stop the Conservative party from winning the next election.
If they cared about the latter they would be working on things that would make problems in Canada better, which is the Conservatives whole “platform”, not wasting time trying to oust the PM.
They’re Canadian politicians. Their entire careers have been built in a world where everyone who matters believes that party loyalty is super important, or at least acts as if they believe it. They’re trying to do what they think is best for the Liberal party.
What is best for the party is using their time to pass legislation that benefits Canadians enough to make them want to vote Liberal again.
Anyone who thinks this is all about the PM is drinking what Pierre is selling. If the Liberals showed real results on the files that actually matter to the people of Canada, Pierre wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
Their goal is serving their constituents priorities, primary of which is to not let PP win the next election. They can’t see Trudeau defeating PP. This is why they want him gone. How would bringing down the government help keeping PP out?
It would seem, based on polling data, that a majority are drinking the Conservative kool-aid and support Pierre winning the next election. Which runs contrary to your main point.
I never said “bringing down the Government” would help keep Pierre out. I said if the Liberal MPs actually felt strongly they would take strong actions instead of wasting everyone else’s time and handing Pierre ammunition to use against the Liberal party as a whole.
If Pierre’s history in Canadian politics cannot stop the fucker, a random new Liberal leader won’t do it either.
Well you said they should vote against the government in a confidence vote. I assume their vote could bring down the government. I haven’t run the numbers. That’s all I went with.
They’re Liberals - they know their chance of reelection depends on the party. If they leave and sit as independents, they almost definitely won’t keep their seat.
They need to stop wasting time on party politics.
If they want to keep their jobs they should work on making their constituents happy enough to elect them again.
I agree on principle.
The received wisdom, however, is that most voters tend to vote for party and leader before they vote for their local representative. As evidence, see how few independent MPs and MPPs there are.
But yeah, a world where voters and representatives focused on their local riding and what’s best for that would be better.
