In the last two weeks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been sent several messages, but judging by a press conference he gave a few days ago, they are falling on deaf ears. The first message was sent by voters in the Liberal stronghold of Toronto—St. Paul’s.
In an astonishing upset , the riding went to the Conservatives. Although byelections are often won by opposition parties, it’s telling that it has been over four decades since the Grits last lost a byelection in Toronto. “We got a message that was loud and clear from Toronto—St.
Paul’s, what was considered a quote-on-quote ‘safe riding,’ ” Immigration Minister Marc Miller told Global News the day after the defeat. Were voters in the riding, which has a large Jewish population, unhappy with the Liberals’ stance on the Israel-Hamas war? Was it affordability issues? Or the increase in the capital gains tax? It’s tough to know from one byelection what the deciding factor was, but it does appear that voters were sending a message about the prime minister’s leadership. After the byelection, Toronto Liberal MP John McKay admitted that the prime minister’s popularity was a factor in the loss.
The defeat also started a conversation within the Liberal caucus. On June 28, Liberal MP Wayne Long became the first member of his party to publicly call for Trudeau to resign. “For the future of our party and for the good of our country we need new leadership and a new direction,” he wrote in a long email to h.
