Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership has been hit with another blow after a number of MPs spent the last 10 days quietly organizing their plans to call for his resignation next week.
Multiple sources have told CTV News that the plan has been in the works for over a week behind closed doors, which is expected to be brought to Trudeau personally at the next caucus meeting on Wednesday.
This comes in the wake of Liberal backbencher Sean Casey being the first MP to publicly call for Trudeau to resign as an internal petition demanding he step down circulates among MPs.
The Charlottetown MP told CBC News in an interview that Trudeau’s leadership is a prominent problem for many voters in his riding.
“The message that I’ve been getting loud and clear — and more and more strongly as time goes by — is that it is time for [Trudeau] to go. And I agree,” said Casey on Tuesday. “People have had enough.They’ve tuned him out and they want him to go.”
Casey’s comments make him the first MP to publicly call for Trudeau to step down, however, multiple sources told the media that the sentiment has reached the Liberal cabinet behind closed doors.
Following two major byelection losses this year, first in Toronto-St. Paul’s and then LaSalle––Émard—Verdun in Montreal, many MPs feel Trudeau is to blame.
This has led to a series of covert meetings being organized by Liberal MPs to discuss the party moving forward without Trudeau at the helm.
While Casey didn’t attend any of those meetings himself, he expects that the collective efforts of his colleagues to oust Trudeau will reach some sort of climax next week once MPs return to Ottawa.
According to multiple sources, a document is being passed around demanding a change of leadership in the face of Trudeau and his supporters refusing to step down.
While the document is being kept tightly away from the public eye, sources said that it has already been signed by as many as 20 MPs and will be brought forth once it has enough signatures.
Those responsible for organizing the pledge fear that if it’s released too early, the Prime Minister’s Office will be able to push back and divide support among those trying to have him ousted as leader, something that happened once already following the Toronto byelection loss.
Casey said he hasn’t been offered to sign the document himself but he did say he’s heard about it “second hand,” adding that there is a “high level of anxiety” within the Liberal caucus over Trudeau’s continued leadership.
“I would say it’s wider than meets the eye. There are a lot of people who have concerns,” said Casey. “But those who have come to the same conclusion as me seem to be becoming more emboldened with the passage of time.”