The Liberal Party of Canada has lost its leader, but one MP thinks the party could be all the stronger for it.
Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski spoke to the Times this week about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s surprise announcement to step down as Liberal party leader on Monday, January 6, 2025, bringing to an end weeks of speculation and calls from the public, opposition parties and his own caucus to step aside. Trudeau announced he would be stepping down in order for the Liberals to hold a leadership contest to determine its path forward in 2025 and beyond. He will remain Prime Minister until the new leader is decided.
Powlowski, the MP for the region since his election in 2019, said Trudeau’s decision wasn’t necessarily a surprise following his most recent controversies and growing public opinion.
“Every leader is going to eventually go,” Powlowski said.
“Certainly, we were all aware of where we are in the polls, and certainly I think everybody who has been following the news at all knows about the amount of dissent within the party and the number of people who are calling for the Prime Minister to step down. I think with Chrystia [Freeland] resigning the way she did, it was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back. I don’t think the Prime Minister really had any other cards left to play, and so I don’t think he really had much of another option other than to have stepped down, which he did.”
However, the search for a new leader for the Liberals means that the party can adjust its trajectory after more than a decade under Trudeau’s leadership. While no names have officially been put forward as of publishing, Powlowski said he thinks the next leader will take the opportunity to bring the party back towards the centre of the political spectrum.
“Where are we going to go politically? I think we will have a change in the direction of the party,” he said.
“I think a lot of people feel that we drifted a little too far to the left, but historically, we’ve been more of a centrist party. I think if you look at all the currently rumoured leadership candidates, I think they are all individuals who would lead us a little back towards a centrist position. Now, there may be someone else out there who’s going to run who doesn’t feel that way, but I think that is the way I see the party going. I do see a change coming, and that will not only include the leader, but I would also predict a lot of the ministers.”
This change of direction could ultimately be a boon for the Liberals as well. Powlowski predicted that a different leader at the helm of the Liberal Party might bring back voters who generally turn out for the party, but for one reason or another were put off by Trudeau as leader, something the next leader could well capitalize on.
“When I first started campaigning in 2019 I had a lot of people who, when I went to the door, told me they previously voted Liberal, they liked me, but ‘sorry, I cannot, will not vote for Justin Trudeau.’” Powlowski recalled.
“The number of people who feel that way has really grown exponentially over the last months and years, and I think a lot of people basically put a big X across the Liberal Party given the leadership. We will have a change in leadership and I think it’s really is important for the new leader to take a position where it’s not a continuation of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, it’s a change in direction of the party. I think it’s going probably going to be a good return to more kind of traditional liberal values.”
A demonstration of a shift in trajectory from the new leader would help warm lapsed Liberals back to the party, Powlowski suggested, especially as he thinks many Canadians are not necessarily won over by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
“I do not believe there is a lot of support for Pierre Poilievre, per se, and a kind of more right-wing approach to politics,” he said.
“I think a lot of people were willing to vote Poilievre because they disliked Trudeau so much, but I don’t think they were really enthusiastic about him as a leader, or the direction the party would be going under him as a leader. I think for all those many, many people who, like me, had a thirst for a return for a centrist political position, I think will be very happy to have a choice that is that centrist, reasonable approach to politics that really does not buy into the messages from the far-left or the far-right.”
There’s a good chance the new Liberal leader won’t have much time to gather their energy before the country heads into an election, with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh indicating his party won’t back the Liberals again regardless of who is chosen as leader. However, Powlowski said the change in government, whether its a newly elected Liberal Prime Minister or another party leader taking the position, will bode well in dealing with a new U.S. administration marked by an unpredictable leader.
“I hear a lot of commentators kind of suggesting that this puts us in a bad position with this uncertainty in political leadership,” Powlowski said.
“I don’t agree with that. I think there was already tremendous amount of uncertainty in the leadership in that everyone knew Trudeau was quite unpopular. Everyone knew we had a minority government that could fall anytime, and everyone knew that Justin Trudeau’s time was probably limited, so I don’t think that this creates this great uncertainty… I think it clears up a fair amount of uncertainty. In terms of dealing with the United States and Donald Trump, it’s certainly going to be a challenge. Donald Trump certainly does not do things in an orthodox fashion. I don’t we’re used to countries, and perhaps shouldn’t be used to them, carrying out diplomacy over Twitter, but that’s the reality… and we’re going to have to deal with them. And I think having having an intelligent government that stands up for the interests of Canadians, however, is willing to speak to, get along and negotiate with Donald Trump, I think our government will have that ability.”
