Liberals are having public and private conversations about the prime minister’s leadership after that shocking byelection that saw a liberal stronghold in the heart of Toronto flip to the conservatives cabinet ministers are standing firmly behind the Prime Minister I’m so proud to serve alongside Justin Trudeau he is still the most important leader of a generation to make transformational change in this country none of the the the the members of parliaments or ministers that I’ve spoken to have told me that they they think that the Prime Minister should go but several liberal MPS speaking on the condition CBC would not name them share different views with CBC News one saying I think the Prime Minister just to safeguard his own legacy has to step down and on the party’s Direction everything we’ve done in the past year has been toned death another said major changes are needed but I’m not sure what they are yet and on the question of Trudeau’s leadership does he have to go I think it’s difficult to see other options but a third MP told CBC it is the prime minister decision to make the caucus isn’t planning a revolt against Trudeau it’s time to bring in the power panel who are hopefully not planning a revolt against me Manel Vero is a former Liberal Party communication strategist here with me in the studio Tim Powers is a former strategist for conservative parties and Jordan lits is a former NDP strategist uh it’s good to see you all uh Amanda the last time I saw you was during the bi-election special we did on Monday night where we had to tap out after 4 hours because of the count um how do you feel after being there with Leslie Church and and seeing it go the other way on the advanced vote and where the party is right now how would you assess the state of the Liberals after that loss H such a big question David I mean being in the room is always particularly hard because you’re surrounded by so many Val volunteers who have put so much hard work and energy into a campaign like that and you also have a candidate who’s waiting in the wings somebody who I personally know who’s a formidable candidate truly an excellent uh human being and I believe that that writing is is really winnable for her in the general election but you know it’s obviously disappointing and it was such a nailbiter and we knew how close it would be and and those margins were razor thin in the end but there was an expectation given the climate obviously given where the conservatives are in the polls that this was was not only not going to be easy but it was going to be really difficult to win and obviously uh it didn’t go that way and I think coming out of it there’s as you know there’s been a lot of chatter both about leadership and where does the liberal party go from here and where does you know the Prime Minister go from here and all of those questions really put a focus a sort of divisive focus on the party where you’re not able to talk about anything else and the prime minister is not able to talk about anything else and certainly they want to be talking about future Direction and yet here we are Yeah Tim I mean from talking to a bunch of MPS in the last couple of days um there’s they they seem to want a national Caucus meeting I don’t know if they’re going to get a national Caucus meeting soon because they’re not supposed to meet till they meet in early September late August um but to demand this point it’s going to be tough to move ahead and talk about other things until you clear the air on this and and and and have that kind of a conversation it doesn’t seem like the Prime Minister wants to do that he may have a whole bunch of different reasons for for that though it would be good caucus management to to try and do that bring people together after a tough loss would seem wise but you know ultimately it’s up to him I think one of the things the Prime Minister does doesn’t get credit for and it’s hard to afford credit to the poor man for anything at the moment but I will give him this he is future proofed his party in such a way that he at least to date has prevented and probably will still be able to hold off internal revolt and division when when he took over the party he got rid of all of that with the the Ketcham Martin Wars in a strange way he’s created this space that is allowing him to have Fidelity from from his key cabinet ministers at least publicly and control of the organization so I don’t think you’re going to see an internal Revolt as you may ever or you would have seen in the conservative side I think this is still Justin Trudeau’s call but you do have to wonder the man is not stupid he has to look across the country and see you know it’s not just this byelection it’s in just about any election where anybody’s been wearing a red liberal Jersey over the last year provincially federally there’s been a massive repudiation of that L and because the guy who leads that team is Justin Trudeau fair or unfair that is what it is at and unless Justin Trudeau wants to oversee if he were to have an election day be a significant defeat the the one thing I’d add I’m sorry I’m droning on about this I’ve heard the theory mounted that oh well you know he’s also thinking that he’s the only one who can lead the party against Pierre pev and make sure it’s not a huge loss everything right now is a referendum about I don’t think that’s going to change so I think he’s if he is thinking that he might have to reflect further on whether that’s good good advice or not Jordan where are you on this yeah I would agree with actually a lot of what he stop the show yeah it’s good we can roll now uh no I mean there’s no question this is such an incredibly difficult environment for Trudeau I think that even if they are able to saave off a lot of public division it’s really tough to overstate what type of energy that containing that and containing those internal discussions also can cost a government right so making sure that uh caucus is on board I think is is always a bit of a smart thing to do so I am surprised to see that they’re not maybe having some space to convene caucus there has been some Outreach just so you know calls going out from P to caucus members personally this is also a bit his own style with caucus and there are pros and cons to that and I think right now you know there would probably be a case to be made internally that folks might need to hear from him but what the plan is what’s going to be different and I think the challenge that they have is that they they now need to look at all the stuff that they haven’t touch so far so that includes signature policies like the carbon tax that includes signature people perhaps like the Finance Minister perhaps like the Prime Minister but I actually think maybe an unpopular view I’m not sure that he’s going to go based on this I think he had baked in already the idea that they could lose in St Paul’s and that every all the signs that we’re seeing so far that they’re going to kind continue down the path that they’ve been on so far I want to get to Mana second but I want to just pick on what you said about Chris Freeland there because liberals were talking to me today about the the couple of uh comments she made during this campaign the the defense of capital gains talking about basically it’s gated communities and pregnant teenagers or capital gains increase and then the comments on Election Day where she talked about the choice between what they want to do and the cold cruel you know smaller world that she was speaking about the conservatives but may have been seen by people as speaking about voters and someone today compared that the Hillary Clinton and the basket of deplorables and I don’t know if that’s a fair comparison or not but these were comments that stood out and not necessarily in a good way for the Liberals how do you see that playing in yeah and I mean listen I think Minister Freeland is is she’s incredibly smart she’s very capable but Communications is not her strong suit and I think that those comments are really reflective of that you know when she tries to connect with people that’s often when you see these sort of these flubs you know the Disney plus one is another example so I think it’s it’s just not her gift right and unfortunately the role that she’s in right now as Deputy Prime Minister and as Finance Minister she’s often getting called upon to do that Communications and it’s just not working and so that’s why I think it’s another reason why all this internal Focus for the Liberals even if there isn’t a lot of public division yet um really what they need to be focused on is improving their Communications with Canadians and that right now that’s uh it’s not possible so Amanda we had Fred delori on the show uh earlier and he he has harping on this that there’s no narrative from this government right none like no narrative it’s a another person described to me as looking for wedges rather than looking for wins and and and that’s what they need to focus on is finding a winning path how do they move now in the wake of all of this yeah and I I don’t entirely disagree with that but I think listen there’s supposedly 15 months until the next election 15 months is like 500 years in politics a million things can change between now and then just look at where we were 15 months ago literally the entire world can change so that’s a huge huge Runway um and if they’re able to communicate I think one of the things that we saw coming out of this byelection and when you look at the polls the the dissatisfaction that Canadians are talking about are issues that matter to them so having a really clear narrative not just about what they’ve done because they have to do that they have to talk about but they also have to talk about POV has put this a big emphasis on the country is broken and it’s broken because of Trudeau he’s had to talk about what he’s against but not what he’s for so the Liberals I think need to do two things they need to talk about what they have brought to fruition things like you know Child Care pharmacare um Dental Care things we’ve talked about on this program but they also have to talk about what’s at stake ax the tax doesn’t go away without things being taken away so they have to turn the channel a bit to have pev respond to what he’s been talking about a broken Canada what does a Fixit look like for you and it has to be more than a bunch of fancy slogans it can’t just be act theack he has to be forced to say what he stands for okay uh quick Tim and join because I want to play a clip here yeah no no obious quick as I can David uh Amanda’s not wrong on that but the problem is back again to the Prime Minister the messenger you can have the best story in the world but if your two main Messengers right now are so disliked by the Canadian public they can say I’m going to give you a bar of gold tomorrow and I’m going to give you another one the next day it’s not going to matter so they’ve got to find a way yes to get a story but who’s going to tell it who’s going to tell it and have it accepted yeah and right now their message is mired and the backward looking look at all the great stuff we did for you and and combined with what Tim’s talking about in in terms of a messenger that people have tuned out it’s just falling on deaf ears yeah you got to defend your record prosecute their record and then offer a vision for future yeah you got to what’s at stake is important right okay this is an interesting thing as a clip I want to play courtesy of my uh colleague Colin Dello of global news who spoke with Ontario liberal leader Bonnie cromy just before Monday’s vote about Doug Ford’s PC’s running ads framing her as a friend of Justin Trudeau listen to what the Ontario liberal leader had to say our policies are different my ideological standing is a little different I’m much more of a Centrist having been a mayor I was very fiscally responsible and I’ve never run a deficit yet I’m very socially Progressive as you trying to make you out as being a friend of Justin Trudeau um well I think the bigger friend is is is Doug Ford is the closer friend of Justin Trudeau you see them um in photographs and in meetings together uh quite often I probably speak to the Prime Minister less than once a year so Amanda that’s Ontario is kind of important to the Liberals and uh the Ontario liberal leader saying that uh what What’s your reaction I mean she did not do any favors the current prime minister that was a stunning distancing um and and unfortunate really but I I understand her position listen the polls are the polls it’s no secret uh the unfavorable view that’s been held right now and she you know she has her her own stake to worry about so understanding that but I think you know what is important is how she’s able to preserve the liberal brand and still try to extract herself from the federal liberal brand at a time when all eyes are on it it’s a it’s a really challenging position for her to be in a lot of political gymnastics there well no no well we’re getting close to the Olympics and there’s now a relay team of lead liberal leaders that could enter because they’re all running so fast and furiously away from from Justin trudo Bonnie crom’s just the latest uh I mean you Susan Holt in New Brunswick our own premier of new Finland and Labrador uh distancing himself from from the Prime Minister just about any liberal leader is out there and I mean the irony of that is is just is huge because of course in 2015 they couldn’t do enough to hug the man and be part parcel lifted many people to uh to electoral victories but that’s the cruel nature of Politics the Prime Minister understands that uh and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon uh unless again there is some kind of uh disruptive action of great significance that puts the prime minister in a better position or finds him uh doing something else and there’s a new leader uh we got 45 seconds left Jordan they’re all yours well I think it’s the big question now is does that ruption come from the Prime Minister himself is this the Catalyst for a decision on his part uh to move on to other things and open the field and I and I really don’t envy the Liberals because I think this is a difficult call you have you could trade somebody who uh who has carried you through many elections is a very good campaigner but is incredibly unpopular verging on toxic right now or you can throw yourself into the uncertainty of a leadership race with maybe untested FrontRunner candidates like Mark Carney these are not really uh you know for for a long inth tooth incumbent government these are not appealing options so I can see why there’s not complete consensus on which way to go okay uh we’ve got to leave it there uh but this will not be the last word on this topic I can promise you that Amanda Alo Tim powers and Jordan lens thanks so much gang
Cabinet ministers are standing by the prime minister publicly, but the shocking byelection loss in Toronto-St. Paul’s has some Liberal MPs privately questioning Justin Trudeau’s leadership, according to conversations with CBC News. The Power Panel digs into the results and the public and private debate within the party.
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