OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) –– Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed Canadians need to understand what is “at stake” after his Liberal Party lost yet another byelection in a supposedly “safe” Liberal area.
After the last votes were counted early Tuesday morning, results from the Montreal-area LaSalle–Émard–Verdun riding byelection held on Monday had Bloc Québécois candidate Louis-Philippe Sauvé beat out Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by a slim margin.
The Bloc’s Sauvé garnered 28 percent of the vote, while the Liberal’s Palestini rang in with 27.2 percent of the vote. While the margin of loss was slim for the Liberals, the drop-off is significant considering the Liberals handily won the riding with 42.9 percent of the vote in 2021.
In third place was New Democratic Party with 26.1 percent of the vote, while the Conservatives came in an expected fourth place with 11.6 percent.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday morning, Trudeau, instead of taking blame for his Liberal Party’s increasing unpopularity and recent byelection upset losses, claimed that Canadian voters just need to be more “engaged.”
“We need people to be more engaged. We need people to understand what’s at stake in this upcoming election,” he said, referring to the looming 2025 election, which at this point could feasibly be called early.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to… win… but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay.”
Last Friday, Trudeau boasted to reporters that he could not “wait for the conversations we’re having in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun.”
“I can’t wait to welcome Laura Palestini to Ottawa,” he added at the time.
The LaSalle–Émard riding, until Monday, had been under Liberal hands since it was created in 2015. Trudeau’s former minister of justice, David Lametti, was its MP until he resigned earlier this year.
Monday’s Liberal byelection loss is the second shock defeat for Trudeau’s party in just over two months. In June, the Conservative Party won a by-election in a longstanding Liberal stronghold riding in downtown Toronto.
The most recent loss suggests that Trudeau’s Liberal government is indeed hanging on by a thread, as suggested by all recent polls which have shown that Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party is set to win big when the next federal election takes place.
The souring of voters to the Liberal Party under Trudeau comes at the same time that even some of his MPs are turning on him. Last week, LifeSiteNews reported on how Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès, who serves as the assistant deputy speaker of the House of Commons, became the first in the party to publicly call for Trudeau to resign, saying directly that he is not the “right leader” for the party.
The Trudeau resignation call comes amid Trudeau losing support from the socialist NDP to keep him in power. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pulled his official support for Trudeau’s Liberals two weeks ago.
Poilievre has promised that at “earliest possible opportunity” he will bring forth a non-confidence motion against Trudeau’s Liberal government which, if successful, would force an immediate election.