Canada's Trudeau faces setback as party loses crucial Montreal election

Canada's ruling Liberal party lost a once-safe seat in a Montreal parliamentary constituency, preliminary results showed on Tuesday, a result likely to put more pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quit.

Elections Canada said that with 100% of the votes counted in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun, Liberal candidate Laura Palestini had been beaten into second place by the separatist Bloc Quebecois candidate, Louis-Philippe Sauvé.

Palestini received 27.2% of the vote compared to 28% for the Bloc and 26.1% for the New Democratic Party candidate. The election was held to replace a Liberal legislator who quit.

The result will put more focus on the political future of Trudeau, who has become increasingly unpopular after almost nine years in office.

Trudeau insists he will lead the party into an election that must be held by the end of October 2025, but some Liberal legislators have broken ranks to call for change at the top.

Alexandra Mendes, a Liberal lawmaker who represents a Quebec constituency, said last week that many of her constituents wanted Trudeau to go.

In the 2021 general election, the Liberals won the Montreal seat with 43% of the vote, ahead of the Bloc Quebecois on 22% and the NDP on 19%. Trudeau had suggested voters may react to anger over elevated prices and a housing crisis.

Polls prediction for the federal elections

Polls suggest that the Liberals will lose badly to the right-of-center Conservatives of Pierre Poilievre in the next federal election. A Leger poll last week put the Conservatives on 45% of public support, a level of national support rarely seen in Canada, with the Liberals in second place at 25%.

Canada's Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada September 16, 2024. Reuters

Trudeau's popularity has sagged as voters struggle with a surge in the cost of living and a housing crisis that has been fueled in part by a spike in arrivals of temporary residents including foreign students and workers.

Poilievre is promising to axe a federal carbon tax he says is making life unaffordable and last week vowed to cap immigration limits until more homes could be built. Liberals concede the polls look grim but say they will redouble efforts to portray Poilievre as a supporter of the Make America Great Again movement of former U.S. President Donald Trump as an election approaches.

Poilievre, an acerbic career politician who often insults his opponents, also says he would defund CBC, Canada's public broadcaster. In April he was ejected from the House of Commons after he called Trudeau "a wacko."