Trudeau says he isn't quitting — do the Liberals have any good options to turn things around?

After losing a Toronto-area riding that's been solidly Liberal for decades, questions — and doubts — hang over the political prospects of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada.

Officials from Trudeau's team called caucus members Tuesday to get feedback on the party's direction after the surprise loss in Toronto-St. Paul's, sources told Radio-Canada.

But with Trudeau again indicating he plans to stay on — and with poll after poll suggesting Canadians are tired of him and his party — is there anything the Liberals can do at this point to get back in voters' good graces?

«I don't think there's anything he can do,» said Abacus Data CEO David Coletto, who has watched the Liberals' polling numbers trend downwards for the past year.

He did suggest that external factors — such as November's U.S. presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump — could cause voters to give the Liberals a second look.

«There's external events that could force voters to evaluate him differently,» he said. «I think the pandemic, for example, did that with a lot of political leaders. It was a crisis that forced us to look at our leaders in different ways.

»I don't think [the Liberals] want Trump to win. But politically, it might be the only kind of thing that does it. But even then, I'm not convinced."

Dan Arnold, chief strategy officer at the polling firm Pollara, said other external events — like a summer of wildfires — could bring the issue of climate change back to the fore, which could work to the Liberals' advantage. He also said such external events are unpredictable.

Arnold, who once worked as the Liberals' director of research and advertising, suggested the party look instead to history and try to change the