Liberal Party of Canada | Andrew Bevan named campaign manager

(Ottawa) The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada Justin Trudeau has named a new campaign manager, while some MPs have reportedly gathered to call on their leader to resign.

Mr. Trudeau and the party announced Sunday that Andrew Bevan, a longtime Liberal employee and volunteer, would take the reins of the Liberal organization ahead of the upcoming general election.

Mr. Bevan most recently served as an advisor to Justin Trudeau and chief of staff to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, which included helping to develop last spring’s budget.

He replaces Jeremy Broadhurst, who resigned as national campaign director last month, shortly before the Liberals lost a crucial byelection in the riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, in Montreal.

After a June by-election defeat in Toronto, these developments fueled calls from some Liberals for Mr. Trudeau’s resignation, which reportedly intensified last week as MPs encouraged each other to commit to ask Trudeau to resign.

The Liberals also announced a deputy campaign director, Marjorie Michel, who specializes in electoral outreach in Quebec. She currently holds the position of Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister. Previously, she was chief of staff to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and to the President of the Treasury Board of the current Liberal government.

Mr. Bevan previously served as chief of staff to former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion as well as former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.

The next federal election is expected to take place within a year, but could be called much sooner, after the New Democratic Party (NDP) decided to withdraw from a deal that supported the Liberals in confidence votes.

Last Friday, several media outlets reported on the efforts made by Liberal MPs to unite to ask Justin Trudeau to resign in a context of sustained decline in polls.

Details about the strategy and scale of the attempt were unclear, although an MP not involved in the revolt told The Canadian Press on Friday that the number of MPs involved was not insignificant.

(Re)read Joël-Denis Bellavance’s analysis “The liberal revolt to oust Trudeau”