well the prime minister is saying that he will stay on as liberal leader that’s despite some calls from within the party for him to step down this following the loss of a historically liberal riding in Toronto cbc’s Heather hiscock sat down with Justin Trudeau today after the Memorial Day ceremony in St John’s here’s what he had to say listen there’s there’s always going to be lots of reflection after after a tough loss but there’s also so much to do and I am committed to doing the work of building a better Canada every single day so I look forward to next year’s Canada day and I look forward to many more Canada days this is this is the kind of work that we have to remember really really matters there tough days and there are better days but Canadians are strong and resilient and that’s why we keep moving forward well for more we spoke with Lori Williams a political science professor at Mont Royal University in Calgary she told us why it’s so tough for liberals to decide between sticking with Justice Trudeau or finding a new leader well there is a lot of pressure but there isn’t an obvious path forward um I mean the two main choices are to stick with Trudeau into the next election hope that the economy turns around inflation comes down interest rates come down and uh and they’ve got a better chance in the next election but um you know Justin Trudeau is coming toward what most polit politicians experience is a best before date you know nine or 10 years in is is usually about all they can sustain simply because their negatives start to outweigh their positives um there’s only so much political Capital as as Justin Trudeau’s own dad pointed out um that you have and it’s basically about spending it while you’re in office and and eventually you run out um that said uh it may be better for the party to stick with him and then start a new with a new leader and and it may be a difficult thing for a new leader to want to take this on um given that that the chances of winning the next election are are not looking great at this stage of the game having said all of that it is possible that a new leader especially someone from outside of government could come in um sort of rejuvenate redirect the party um you know give a new vision if you like for the future uh and particularly if they’re not vulnerable to being defined by the opposition uh they that leader would be up against uh a leader in the opposition that is Pier PV who who’s negative numbers are a little higher than you usually see in someone who hasn’t been in office at this stage of the game so there is still um a strategic set of possibilities here that it’s just not clear at this stage whether the better route to go is with Trudeau or someone else well well and Lori I just want to pick up on something that you said somebody outside the party you think uh outside of government you think would would possibly be an option as opposed to Trudeau you don’t think that there’s anybody within cabinet right now uh that that that could would replace him there are lots of people that are interested lots of very talented people and under other circumstances I think they’d have a much stronger chance but but of course because they’ve been at the cabinet table all of the Front Runners that we’re looking at um they’ve all been at the cabinet table they’re all associated with unpopular policies and with an unpopular government it’s really difficult for them to to sort of hit the reset button with a lot of credibility they would be vulnerable to all those attacks that have been so effective against the Liberals up until this point and so I think somebody from the outside people are touting Mark Carney but he’s not just a new face he’s somebody who’s already got a high-profile um he’s somebody who’s got an enormous amount of Economic and financial credibility and and on that count because of his private sector experience or or his Bank of Canada or Bank of England experience he’s in a position um to really challenge uh Pier PV because Pier PV does not have that kind of experience or gravitas to bring to the table so so it looks to me at least at this stage of the game that somebody from outside would have a better chance now whether they would have a chance of winning the next election or not is an open question well the Prime Minister says he is committed to remaining on in that role and that essentially he’s not going anywhere and up until this point his cabinet is really rallying around him but there are several MPS uh that have signed this letter calling for an immediate inperson National Caucus meeting Trudeau has declined to comment what do you make of that decision ision well I I mean because he is one of the two main routes the party can go of course he’s got to say that he’s committed to Canada’s future that he’s in this fight for the for the sake of Canadians and that he has a positive view for for the future um and again because he is one of two very credible paths forward of course he’s got to say that but he also has to respond to these concerns amongst his his caucus and we’ve seen him listening to those concerns when they got pretty severe when uh when the issue over heating home heating oil in Atlantic Canada became such a big issue uh he he basically responded to that in a way that you he’s been paying for since but but the fact that he was listening to very concerned caucus members indicates that that there can be pressure that comes from within that pushes him in that direction and it makes sense for him to sit down with those caucus members and discuss with them uh his vision for the future and to consider the other options that are available laori I’ve got to run here one more quick one though uh how long can the the Liberal Party afford this to be the conversation as opposed to talking about policy the conversation being about the leader right they’ve got to settle this one way or the other probably within a couple of months um simply because the next election is a year and a half away a little less actually and and because of that uh he they um have to have a pretty clear sort of U unified stance to bring two voters and they’ve got to have a strategy some kind of change is necessary um maybe shaking up cabinet changing up policy those haven’t worked very very well so far so I think they’ve got to look very seriously at all of their options and settle this question uh by the end of the summer Lori Williams a political science professor at Mount Royal University talking to us from Calgary
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s committed to Liberal leadership after losing Toronto-St. Paul’s byelection, but are party members still committed to him? Political science Prof. Lori Williams weighs in on the future of Trudeau and his party.
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