Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a news conference in Vientiane, Laos on Oct. 11.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his new campaign team on Sunday, as members of his own caucus have begun a new effort to convince him to resign rather than lead the Liberal Party into the next election.
More than a month after Liberal campaign director Jeremy Broadhurst quit his post, the party announced over the Thanksgiving weekend that longtime Liberal strategist Andrew Bevan will take over the role and Marjorie Michel will become deputy campaign director.
The Sunday morning announcement was widely seen as a response to the latest effort by Liberal MPs to oust Mr. Trudeau. Liberal sources say this new effort is bigger than one started by New Brunswick MP Wayne Long earlier this year. After the party lost its Toronto-St. Paul’s stronghold in a June by-election, it was just Mr. Long who publicly put his name behind the call for the Prime Minister to resign.
Over the weekend, The Globe spoke with 18 Liberals, including 13 MPs. The vast majority of them denied any involvement in the revolt and many of them noted that rumours of an organized ouster have been circling in the Liberal caucus for months but never materialized.
The Globe is not naming the sources so they could speak freely without fear of repercussion.
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In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Sunday, Mr. Long confirmed that there is talk within caucus of a letter and there is an effort to gather signatures from Liberal MPs. He said he will sign this letter and said he’s hopeful more colleagues will add their names this time around.
“The Prime Minister does need to step down for the good of the party,” said Mr. Long, who is not running again in the next election. “I’m a proud Liberal, I’m a part of the Liberal Party of Canada. It’s not the Justin Trudeau Party of Canada.”
“It’s incumbent on me and my colleagues to make sure that we present a viable alternative to what I deem a very beatable Pierre Poilievre, but we’re not going to have that happen with Justin Trudeau as our leader.”
Wayne Long, MP for Saint John-Rothesay speaks in Saint John, N.B., on Jan. 17, 2024.Michael Hawkins/The Canadian Press
Mr. Long said there is more urgency for change now, than there was in July when the party had just lost the Toronto by-election. He said that’s in part because it has since also lost a Montreal riding and also because the minority government is in a more precarious position after it lost the automatic support of the NDP, which has increased the likelihood of a snap election.
“There’s heightened awareness of the dire situation we’re in,” Mr. Long said, saying that it permeates the behind the scenes talks among Liberals in caucus, and in the backrooms of the House of Commons.
So far no other MP has publicly tied their names to the latest effort. In September, Quebec Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès said based on what she heard from constituents she doesn’t believe the party can win another election with Mr. Trudeau as leader.
Still, almost all of the MPs who spoke to The Globe said there was anxiety and frustration within caucus that there has been no sense of urgency exhibited by the Prime Minister’s Office to make changes in the face of more than a year of a double-digit polling shortfall, lacklustre fundraising, and the loss of two key ridings in Toronto and Montreal – cities that make up the core of Liberal support.
The Sunday announcement that Mr. Bevan would take over campaign planning and strategy was seen as the first step by the Prime Minister’s Office to respond to that discontent.
Mr. Bevan is currently the chief of staff to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. He was previously the top adviser to former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne from 2013 to 2018 and to then-Liberal leader Stephane Dion from 2007 to 2008.
His deputy, Ms. Michel, is currently deputy chief of staff to Mr. Trudeau. In the last two federal elections she led the Liberal Party’s campaign operations in Quebec – a key battleground for the Liberals.
The party did not immediately say when the two would leave their posts in government, with Liberal Party spokesperson Parker Lund only saying Sunday that it will happen in “the coming days.”
The announcement just 48 hours after news of the revolt broke is a “tacit concession to the internal frustration,” said Liberal strategist Scott Reid.
He said it showed at least some acknowledgement from the Prime Minister’s Office “that further inaction is not the right recipe.”
