Another loss and a new dynamic in Ottawa, Liberal MP says voters sending a message

With another poor byelection result behind his party, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP, Patrick Weiler, said the result is disappointing and repeated concerns he raised three months prior in suggesting the prime minister reflect on the direction of government.

“It’s a riding that's in downtown Montreal, so it very much should be a Liberal riding, and the fact we lost that is very disappointing,” he said of the Sept. 16 result in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun that saw the Liberal Party lose a riding it held with a 10,000-vote lead in the last federal election.

The Liberal candidate lost by only 248 votes to a Bloc Quebecois challenger—a result Weiler said echoed the similarly close Liberal loss of Toronto-St. Paul’s in June to the Conservatives.

Weiler said it wasn’t doom and gloom because of the nature of byelections, but added the government needs to listen more intently.

“While that’s very frustrating, it is very different than a general election because byelections are an opportunity to send a message to the government without risking changing what the government is," he said.

“But those two results show that the message is being sent, and I don’t think it has fully sunk in yet. It's the kind of result that should prompt that serious reflection because the voters of those two ridings are sending a message and it’s important the government listen.” 

The comments echo what the local MP said in reaction to a byelection loss in Toronto-St. Paul’s, nearly three months prior.

The timing of the loss came only days after the party had wrapped up a caucus retreat in Nanaimo—which served as an opportunity for the caucus to come face to face with the Liberal leadership and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to push for more change.

“We had very frank conversations in Nanaimo," Weiler said. "The substance of those conversations are meant to stay within the walls of those meetings, but it was the first time for us to have gotten together since the byelection in Toronto-St. Paul’s and the message was sent very clear by [MPs] about the kind of change they want to see based on what they are hearing in their own ridings.”

Weiler said he continues to hear frustrations from constituents on cost-of-living pressures.

“A lot of people lay that at the feet of government and with the prime minister, so people are looking for a change in their circumstances which is totally understandable,” he said, adding he is also hearing many government policies around childcare and housing are landing well in the community.

“The other thing that I’ve been hearing from a lot of people is fear of what a Conservative government might be, and what that might mean for our riding … So that message was definitely sent, and we had some frank conversations on that. I have some ideas on what to do moving forward, so it was really important we had that opportunity to have those conversations as we go into what will be a more turbulent fall session.”

On the fall session in Ottawa, Weiler said the retreat was a good opportunity to prepare for what he described as a “very different dynamic” in Ottawa, with the NDP supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberal government coming to an end.

“There’s a lot of intrigue right now happening in politics at all levels … But the one thing I was very frustrated to see recently was the NDP flip-flopping on carbon pricing, and really buy into the Conservative misinformation that somehow this makes life less affordable for working people ... But it just shows me that the NDP is not serious about fighting climate change, and unfortunately, both this and the fact they are ripping up the deal essentially is them succumbing to Conservative bullying tactics,” he said, explaining he believes much of the work both the Liberals and the NDP accomplished together was good for Canadians.

“So, very disappointed to see the NDP go down that road, but now we’re in a minority situation, we'll on a case-by-case basis hopefully work with the NDP, hopefully at times work with the Bloc and maybe at times work with the Conservatives. But it'll certainly be constantly changing, but it should make for an interesting fall.”