Trudeau says Liberals have 'a lot of work to do' after his party loses another byelection

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday the party he leads has to take stock after voters handed the Liberals another humiliating byelection loss, this time in Montreal.

Speaking to reporters before meeting with his cabinet after the LaSalle-Émard-Verdun defeat, Trudeau said he's reflecting on why voters turned on the party and why some former Liberal supporters stayed home.

He said it isn't "fun" to come so close to a win and come up short.

"Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold Verdun, but there's more work to do and we're going to stay focused on doing it," Trudeau said.

Bloc Québécois byelection candidate Louis-Philippe Sauvé beat Liberal Laura Palestini by a very narrow margin — a stunning upset, given the fact that this Montreal riding has been held by the Liberals for most of the last century.

Sauvé took 28 per cent of the vote, compared to 27.2 per cent for Palestini and 26.1 per cent for NDP candidate Craig Sauvé. Fewer than 250 votes separated the Bloc and Liberal candidates.

That third-place finish is a disappointment for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who was a frequent presence in the riding throughout the campaign.

The NDP held its caucus retreat in Montreal last week and some MPs took turns knocking on doors in an attempt to win a seat in a province that hasn't been fertile ground for the party in recent years.

But Singh's candidate narrowly won Elmwood-Transcona — a longtime safe NDP seat — after holding off a surging Conservative candidate in that working-class riding.

The Liberal standard-bearer there, Ian MacIntyre, posted one of the worst byelection results for a candidate from the governing party in Canadian history. He got less than five per cent of the vote — a result too low to qualify him for an Elections Canada rebate of eligible campaign expenses.

Trudeau suggested turnout may have played a role in the party's loss. He said in French the party needs to "increase participation so that people can understand there's an important choice to be made in the next election."

"We need people to be more engaged, we need people to understand what's at stake in this upcoming election," he said.

Trudeau has tried to present himself and his government as a bulwark against Pierre Poilievre. Trudeau has accused the populist Conservative leader of planning to upend progress on social programs and the environment.

The turnout in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun was relatively high for a byelection — 40 per cent of registered voters showed up to cast a ballot. That's about 10 percentage points higher than the turnout in another Montreal byelection last year.