Canada’s Trudeau vows to lead his Liberal Party to next election

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he will lead his Liberal Party in the next election, rejecting requests from some party members not to seek a fourth term.

Trudeau met with Liberal members of Parliament for three hours on Wednesday. where did he learn He said more than 20 MPs from his party had signed a letter calling for his resignation before the next election.

Trudeau said “robust conversations” are ongoing about the best way to move forward, but “that will happen as we go into the next election as leader.”

No Canadian prime minister has won four consecutive terms in more than a century.

Trudeau’s Cabinet ministers have said he has the support of the vast majority of the 153 Liberal Party members in the House of Commons.

The Liberals recently struggled in special elections the party has held for years for seats representing two regions in Toronto and Montreal, raising doubts about Trudeau’s leadership.

The federal election could be held any time between this fall and next October. The Liberals have to rely on the support of at least one major party in Parliament because they do not have an outright majority themselves.

The leader of the opposition Bloc Québécois said his party will work with the Conservatives and the NDP’s New Democratic Party to oust the Liberals and force an election if the government does not raise pensions.

Nelson Wiseman, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, said pressure was mounting on Trudeau but some unhappy MPs didn’t understand how much power he had.

“Trudeau holds all the cards. It’s up to him whether he wants to stay or not. The Liberal Party revised its rules in 2016 so that the party leader is immune from any challenge to his leadership as long as he is prime minister,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.

Trudeau channeled his father’s star power in 2015 when he reasserted the country’s liberal identity after nearly 10 years of Conservative Party rule. But the son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is in trouble. Canadians are frustrated by the rising cost of living and other issues, including the country’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The latest Nanos poll has the Liberals trailing the Conservatives by 38% to 25%. The survey of 1,037 respondents has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.