Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pictured after signing a book of condolences marking the passing of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa on Jan. 3.Blair Gable/Reuters
Senior Liberal MPs will meet Friday to discuss how to increase pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reveal whether he’s staying on as party leader.
Two MPs told The Globe and Mail that regional caucus chairs plan to discuss whether national chair Brenda Shanahan should call a caucus meeting. They will also parse over what the rules could be to replace Mr. Trudeau both on an interim basis and in the long term should he step down, the sources said.
The Globe is not identifying the sources because they are not authorized to speak publicly about caucus deliberations.
The meeting follows reports that a growing number of MPs in the party’s Atlantic, Quebec and Ontario caucuses agree that Mr. Trudeau should step down. These regional caucuses make up the bulk of the Liberal seats in the House of Commons.
The regional caucus chairs met last week to review the party’s rules on what happens when a leader resigns and what powers, if any, MPs might have to select a temporary replacement, the sources said.
They’ve also asked the party for clarity, but said they’ve yet to receive a response. Party spokesperson Matteo Rossi told The Globe in an e-mail that the processes and timelines are “clearly” laid out in the constitution.
That document says that if there is a “leadership trigger event,” there must be a meeting of the national board of directors within 27 days, and at that meeting the board must “upon the occurrence of a Leadership Trigger Event, or if the Leader so requests, in consultation with the Caucus, appoint an ‘Interim Leader.’ ”
What MPs want to understand is what “consultation” means, and whether the reference to the leader being involved could see Mr. Trudeau hand-pick his own replacement.
There are 338 MPs in the Commons, 153 of them Liberal. Of those, 131 come from the three regions – 75 from Ontario, 33 from Quebec and 23 from Atlantic Canada.
The Prime Minister has been facing internal pressure to resign for months, which escalated after finance minister Chrystia Freeland quit her post on Dec. 16 – just hours before she was to deliver the fall economic statement.
That sentiment had been building since the party lost a by-election in the safe Liberal riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s in June – the first time since 2015 that the Liberals lost a seat in the city.
A number of cabinet ministers and MPs have since announced they do not plan to run in the next election, expected some time this year. Long-time Toronto Liberal MP Marco Mendicino joined that list on Thursday, announcing in a statement that he will not seek re-election. The statement did not explicitly mention Mr. Trudeau.
Mr. Trudeau previously told his MPs that he would reflect on his future. The Globe previously reported he was not expected to announce a decision about next steps over the holidays.
The Prime Minister has been in British Columbia for the past several days and he is expected to be back in the Ottawa region on Friday, when he will chair a meeting of the cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations.
Several riding association presidents were split on what should happen next.
Derek Raymaker, chair of the Taiaiako’n–Parkdale–High Park federal Liberal association, said his view is that Mr. Trudeau should resign. The riding is held by the Liberals.
“People hate him, and increasingly Liberal party voters – not so much members, but voters – dislike him,” Mr. Raymaker said, adding that it’s his personal view, not that of the board. “And that might be unfair but it’s what is happening in the times we live in.”
But he added there’s no mechanism for Liberal party members to remove Mr. Trudeau, and he believes the central party has taken away too much power from the rank-and-file members.
“I just think that we have a responsibility to try to rebuild the party from the point of view of what Canadians want right now.”
Matti Prima, president of the Willowdale federal Liberal riding association in Toronto’s North York, said he strongly supports his MP, Ali Ehsassi, who recently called for Mr. Trudeau’s resignation.
Mr. Prima said when he knocks on doors, there isn’t animosity toward the Liberal Party itself or the local MP.
“They’re not unhappy with Ali Ehsassi. They feel that things are beginning to get positive, but you still have issues to contend with. I’m not hearing this overwhelming support for Poilievre and the Conservative party,” he said.
“I think it’s a leadership issue, I think it’s a change in how the leadership should be dealing with some of the issues that people are concerned with. I think that’s what it comes down to.”
Mr. Prima added that he personally doesn’t think Mr. Trudeau is going to step down.
Glenn Loney, president of the Richmond Hill South federal Liberal association, said he’s agnostic on the matter of Mr. Trudeau’s leadership. He added it wasn’t mentioned at the riding’s recent general meeting in late December.
“Justin has done a lot of good for the country and the party through some very challenging times, and it is a shame he doesn’t get more credit for it,” Mr. Loney said in an e-mail.