Canada’s President Trudeau suffers setback after his party loses crucial election in Montreal – America

Elections Canada announced that after 100 percent of the votes in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun were counted, Liberal candidate Laura Palestini was pushed into second place by separatist Bloc Québécois candidate Louis-Philippe Sauvé.

Palestini received 27.2 percent of the vote, compared to 28 percent for the bloc and 26.1 percent for the New Democratic Party candidate. The election was held to replace a liberal MP who had resigned.

The outcome will put even more focus on the political future of Trudeau, who has become increasingly unpopular after nearly nine years in office. The Liberals are trailing far in the polls behind the right-of-centre Conservatives, who blame Trudeau for rising prices and a housing crisis.

Trudeau insists he will lead the Liberals into the election, which must be held by the end of October 2025. But some parliamentarians have stepped out of line and are calling for a change at the top.

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

The Liberals did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the results of the special election. A senior Liberal said shortly before the count in Montreal that Trudeau would remain in office regardless of the outcome.

The party also fared poorly in a second special election in Elmwood-Transcona in the central province of Manitoba. The NDP retained the seat while the Liberals received just 5 percent of the vote, compared to 15 percent in the 2021 general election.

In that election, the Liberals won the Montreal seat with 43 percent of the vote, ahead of the Bloc with 22 percent and the NDP with 19 percent.

Polls suggest the Liberals will suffer a significant defeat to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in the next federal election. A Leger poll last week put the Conservatives at 45 percent of public support, a level of national support rarely seen in Canada. The Liberals would come in second at 25 percent.

Trudeau’s popularity has plummeted as voters grapple with rising living costs and a housing crisis exacerbated in part by a sharp increase in the number of temporary residents, including foreign students and workers.

In June, the Liberals lost a safe seat in a special election in Toronto.

Poilievre is pledging to repeal a federal carbon tax that he says makes life unaffordable, and last week pledged to limit immigration until more housing could be built. Liberals acknowledge that the polls look bleak but say they will redouble their efforts to portray Poilievre as a supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement in the run-up to the election.

Poilievre, a sharp-tongued career politician who often insults his opponents, also announced he would defund Canada’s public broadcaster, the CBC. In April, he was thrown out of the House of Commons after calling Trudeau a “nutcase.”