Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, centre, addressed whether he will step down as Liberal leader, during a news conference on Oct. 24 about Ottawa's immigration targets.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he will lead the Liberal Party into the next federal election campaign, speaking one day after some Liberal MPs criticized his leadership during an extended closed-door caucus meeting.
The speed of Mr. Trudeau’s response was criticized by some of the dissenting MPs in the Liberal caucus, who said the Prime Minister should take more time to consider their views.
During Wednesday’s caucus meeting, sources told The Globe and Mail that B.C. MP Patrick Weiler read a letter to the room expressing concern with the party’s direction and asking the Prime Minister to step down. Mr. Trudeau was told that 24 people had put their names to it, but those names were not disclosed even in the meeting. In addition to the letter, dozens of MPs spoke during the meeting both for and against Mr. Trudeau’s continued leadership.
The Globe spoke to 12 MPs privately after Wednesday’s meeting, and is not identifying them because they were not authorized to discuss caucus deliberations and they fear repercussions.
The dissidents gave Mr. Trudeau a deadline of Monday, Oct. 28 to respond to their concerns, but did not indicate what the next step would be.
Mr. Trudeau said “yes” when asked Thursday if he plans on staying on as Prime Minister beyond Oct. 28.
Liberal MP Wayne Long, who publicly called on Mr. Trudeau to step down in June, said he was disappointed by the speed of Mr. Trudeau’s response.
“Ultimately it’s his choice. I’m just personally disappointed that it’s less than 20 hours after many of us told him he had to, or we thought he needed to step down. He told us he would reflect. It’s pretty quick reflection and I think he needs to reflect more,” he said.
Mr. Weiler, who read the letter in caucus, said Thursday he would not comment on what happened inside the meeting.
“I’m not surprised that the Prime Minister said that,” he said in response to Mr. Trudeau’s declaration that he will continue to lead the party. “I mean, if you would have said anything else, you probably would be a lame duck prime minister.”
Mr. Weiler said he still expects Mr. Trudeau to reflect on the discussion and provide a response at a future caucus meeting.
“The decision’s really up to him and so I’m looking forward to him taking the appropriate time to think about this and then come back to us with a decision,” he said.
Liberal MP Sean Casey, who signed the letter and has publicly called on Mr. Trudeau to resign, told reporters Thursday that he didn’t think Mr. Trudeau took enough time to reflect but that he’s prepared to stop pushing the issue. He said he will now focus on winning his seat.
“He listened, but he wasn’t swayed,” he said.
Mr. Casey was asked by a reporter if Mr. Trudeau is being delusional in thinking he can still win the next election. “I wouldn’t call it delusional, but he’s seeing something that I don’t see, that my constituents don’t see,” he said
Mr. Trudeau said Thursday the party’s focus is on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, repeating his criticism of the fact that Mr. Poilievre refuses to get a security clearance to receive a briefing about foreign interference.
“I have a really hard time believing that all Conservative members are perfectly fine with their leader politicizing issues around national security, but refusing to get a security clearance to be able to actually deal with foreign interference,” he said.
Mr. Trudeau said the Liberal Party shares perspectives and talks “amongst ourselves,” but is united in a desire to make sure Mr. Poilievre does not form government, which he said would lead to program and service cuts.
“We’re going to continue to have great conversations about what is the best way to take on Pierre Poilievre in the next election, but that will happen with me as leader going into the next election,” he said at a Thursday news conference in Ottawa announcing that the federal government will be reducing Canada’s immigration targets.
Mr. Poilievre criticized Mr. Trudeau’s immigration announcement as an admission that his “radical uncontrolled immigration” polices have backfired.
Speaking with reporters in Toronto, the Conservative Leader said the announcement is driven by the fact that the Prime Minister is under attack from his own caucus.
“We can’t expect that Justin Trudeau will keep any of these frantic, panicked, last-minute promises that he’s making to reverse his earlier decisions that he’s making now, when his own MPs in the Liberal Party are trying to fire him in an election year,” he said.
With reports from Stephanie Levitz, Marieke Walsh and Ian Bailey