Liberal MPs to meet next week as calls for Trudeau to leave intensify

Liberal MPs will gather next week for a special national caucus meeting for the first time since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told them he would take the holidays to reflect on calls for him to step down as party leader.

Liberal national caucus chair Brenda Shanahan called the meeting for Wednesday, Jan. 8, according to an email sent to Liberal MPs and shared with CBC News on Friday. It is scheduled to run as long as six hours.

Multiple Liberal MPs hope it will bring to an end the months of private and public efforts to try to force Trudeau to step down.

MPs say they still have no indication of the prime minister's intentions. One MP told CBC News they would not be surprised if Trudeau intends to stay on despite efforts to remove him. 

Shanahan urged all MPs to attend the meeting in person but said given the short notice, they could attend by Zoom — but under strict conditions to maintain caucus confidentiality.

She said members "are expected to be alone in a closed confidential space, face visible at all times on screen and be wearing an HOC approved headset whether intending to speak or not."

She noted that any use of a cellphone, speaking with third parties or "other inappropriate inactivity" on Zoom would be reason for being disconnected from the Zoom call without warning.

The Liberal national caucus executive met on Friday to discuss next steps as Trudeau has continued to stay silent about his future in the weeks since Chrystia Freeland resigned as deputy prime minister and finance minister and as more MPs have called for him to resign.

The efforts to force a leadership change did not slow down after the House of Commons rose for the holidays. Instead, more individual MPs have gone public with calls for Trudeau to leave.

Regional caucuses in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces have either written letters calling for Trudeau to step down or delivered that message verbally to the party leadership. 

On Friday, Winnipeg South Centre MP Ben Carr became the first Manitoba Liberal MP to call for Trudeau to step down.

"I do not arrive at this decision easily, nor do I make it happily. Far from it," Carr said in a letter to his constituents on Friday afternoon.

"It is the culmination of daily conversations with constituents, supporters, mentors, friends, and colleagues over a prolonged period, out of which has emerged a clear belief that it is time for change."

Trudeau made his first public appearance of the New Year on Friday after vacationing in B.C. over the holidays, visiting the U.S. embassy in Ottawa to sign a book of condolences for former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.