Canada’s Corrupt Liberal Government

OTTAWA — First, the Conservatives took Toronto—St.Paul’s. Next, they’re gunning for Mount Royal in Montreal.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is said to be sharpening his knives to take on a Liberal fortress in Quebec’s largest city in the next general election. And after the party’s stunning byelection victory in a formerly safe Liberal seat on Monday, the Conservatives seem more confident than ever.

Hard for me to have sympathy for Housefather. He blocked me on X for pointing out Trudeau was going to admit 5K plus Hamas supporters from Gaza.

The mood of Liberals changed abruptly this week, like a switch being flicked.

There were already party apparatchiks and MPs who thought Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should go, of course. But before Monday’s by-election loss in Toronto-St. Paul’s, there were many who thought Mr. Trudeau was probably better than the alternatives.

He’s a good campaigner, they said. He wins seats in Quebec. Those waiting in the wings might lead the party to oblivion.

Steven Guilbeault has been taking the temperature of the Liberal Party caucus as calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation mount.

The environment minister was in Toronto this week to meet with Members of Parliament who were awestruck by Monday’s upset defeat in the Toronto–St Paul’s byelection. He spent Thursday working the phones with Liberals across the country trying to take stock of how bad things really are.

I know this because Guilbault did some of this work in public, in the Via Rail business lounge, as he sat next to Canada’s least-recognizable columnist: Me.

Let me get this straight. Liberal Minister was unknowingly sitting next to a columnist on a train – was talking trash about Justin Trudeau needing to go and now he’s like “it was taken out of context”

These people will literally sink with the ship. https://t.co/GzX5asGbdK

— Jennifer Elle (@jenniferelle_) June 28, 2024

OTTAWA — Shock and disappointment over Monday’s byelection defeat in midtown Toronto is still rippling through federal Liberal circles, with some insiders stating their party has veered too far from the political centre and gained a damaging association with the “woke” left.

It’s one of the many factors Liberals are pointing at — alongside souring views on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership — to explain how they lost to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives on Monday, in a riding that has elected Liberals reliably in 10 previous campaigns since 1993.

Catherine McKenna, who served as a prominent Liberal cabinet minister under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from 2015 to 2021, says it’s time for the Liberal Party to seek a “new leader.”

“The Liberal Party isn’t about one person. It’s about the values it stands for and it’s about improving the lives of Canadians,” McKenna said in a media statement.

“The prime minister has a legacy to be proud of, but it’s time for new ideas, new energy and a new leader. There’s too much at stake in this election, especially on the economy and the climate.”

Following the Liberals’ embarrassing defeat in Toronto—St. Paul’s, Canadian politics has been consumed with a single question: should the party dump the wildly unpopular prime minister in favour of a leader who has a hope in a Winnipeg winter of holding onto government?

For Liberals and their supporters, who imagine the Conservatives are barbarians at the gates ready to smash civilization to pieces, it’s easy to see why that option could be alluring. Whatever the fortunes of the Liberal party generally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is particularly reviled. So, it would seem some partisans believe, the public would snap out of its dalliances with Pierre Poilievre’s Tories and embrace a new leader if only it were presented with one.

Toronto-St. Paul’s isn’t really “one of the safest Liberal ridings in the country.” Safe it certainly is, having voted Liberal in every election since 1993. But 19 other ridings are as safe or safer by that measure.

Vancouver Quadra has been electing Liberals since 1984. The Toronto riding of Humber River-Black Creek, the former York West, last elected a candidate from another party in 1958. Mount Royal, on the Island of Montreal, has been solidly Liberal since 1940. Ottawa Vanier has been a Liberal riding since its creation, in 1935; in its former incarnation as Russell, since 1887.

Despite the stunning electoral turnaround in the Toronto St Paul’s byelection on June 24, Trudeau doubled down on his assertion that he is still being the man for the job.

He will not resign. His ego is too big to accept that kind of accountability. Furthermore, there are no credible replacements. No, not even the untainted partial outsider Mark Carney. As for the cabinet, it is compromised as a normal course: any pretender to the throne would have to resign from that pack.