After Montreal byelection loss, Trudeau says ‘we have a lot of work to do’

The Liberals have “a lot of work to do” after the party suffered a major byelection defeat in what has historically been a Montreal stronghold Monday night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

“It would’ve been nicer to win and hold Verdun but there’s more work to do but we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters outside a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.

Addressing questions over his leadership of the party, he said in French, “We have a lot of work to do and we’re going to continue to do it.”

Trudeau suffered a devastating electoral blow after the Liberals lost their stronghold of  LaSalle—Émard—Verdun to the Bloc Québécois —the second loss of a stronghold this summer, after they suffered defeat in Toronto-St Paul’s in June.

When asked what went wrong for the Liberals, Trudeau said, “There’s all sorts of reflections to take on that but the big thing is to make sure Canadians understand the choice they get to make in the next election about the kind of country we are really matters and that’s the work we’re going to continue to do.”

Elections Canada reported all 187 polls early Tuesday, showing the Bloc won the seat just 248 votes ahead of the Liberals.

The Montreal seat opened up when former justice minister David Lametti left politics.

Just over one-third of Canadians (33 per cent) approve of the Trudeau government, according to an Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News and released on Monday. That approval rating is down by four points since the last time Ipsos did a similar poll in June.

Darrell Bricker, global CEO of Ipsos public affairs, said it’s not just the government message that’s unappealing to voters but the messenger — Trudeau.

“What we’ve heard from the government is that they