(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remained defiant after his Liberal Party lost a key seat in Montreal, urging voters to take a harder look at the political options they’ll face in the next election.
The Canadian leader said the defeat simply means he has to work harder. He gave no indication that he plans to leave office before a vote that’s currently scheduled for October 2025, but may happen earlier.
The Liberals were narrowly defeated in a special election held Monday in the Montreal district of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, a seat the party has held throughout Trudeau’s nearly nine years in power. Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, Trudeau said he believes Canadians are not paying close enough attention to politics right now.
“We need people to be more engaged,” Trudeau, 52, told reporters Tuesday. “We need people to understand what’s at stake in this upcoming election.”
The Bloc Quebecois, a party that advocates for the French-speaking province and doesn’t run candidates in the rest of Canada, eked out the win by just 248 votes. The Liberals finished second but saw a huge drop in support, having won the seat in 2021 by more than 10,000 votes.
It follows a stinging loss for the party in June, when a Toronto district flipped to the Conservative Party.
Since last year, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has surged to a large lead in national polling. Poilievre’s rise coincided with economic upheaval in Canada after the Covid pandemic, particularly the soaring cost of housing and a spike in consumer prices.
Inflation is now back to normal levels, but Trudeau’s approval ratings haven’t recovered, leading to calls from inside and outside the Liberal Party for him to step down and allow a new leader to take over.
The prime minister has tried to characterize Poilievre as a leader who will make harmful budget cuts if he wins power.
Some observers see little chance Trudeau can recover from a brutal summer that has seen his Liberals lose high-profile byelections in Canada’s two largest cities — defeats that strike into the heart of the party’s electoral base.
“The Liberals are in deep trouble,” said Jean-Marc Leger, chief executive officer of polling firm Leger. “I understand they’ll try to minimize this, but this is catastrophic for them.”
‘End of an Era’
Leger said losing in Montreal and Toronto means the Liberals are facing potentially massive losses across the country in a general election, especially as Poilievre solidifies his position atop the polls. The Liberals currently hold 154 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons, while the Conservatives have 119.
Trudeau is an excellent campaigner, Leger said, but his prospects look increasingly dim. “It smells like the end of an era,” he said.
“These byelections have to be considered, and I’m sure are being considered, by the prime minister as pivotal moments in his leadership,” said Marci Surkes, chief strategy officer at Compass Rose Group and a former senior aide to Trudeau.
Trudeau may not be taking a “drastic decision” about his leadership, she said, but the prime minister may consider changes in how he comports himself or speaks to Canadians.
“You learn the best lessons out of campaigns that you lose, but they’re only valuable lessons if you actually apply what you learned and change. Same old, same old is not gonna cut it at this point for the Liberal Party.”
Trudeau mostly stuck to previous comments on Tuesday. “There is more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” he said.
Other ministers in his government, speaking on their way into a cabinet meeting, took a cautious tone, but still pledged their support for the prime minister.
“We need to be humble,” said Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, who holds a seat northeast of Montreal. “I would say we need to redouble efforts as well to show that the Liberal team is the best team to deliver for Quebeckers.”
Immigration Minister Marc Miller — who, like Trudeau, represents part of Montreal in the House of Commons — said he took the loss personally, but added the Liberals have to work on rebuilding their support.
“The sun’s going to rise tomorrow, it’s going to set tonight, and we intend to win it the next time,” he said.
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