Trudeau makes fundraising stop in Brampton after tough Liberal loss in Toronto

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be back in the GTA for a fundraiser in Brampton just days after the Liberals lost a Toronto riding they had held for more than three decades.

With tickets for the event as high as $1,725, the fundraiser on Thursday will see Trudeau and Brampton MPP Kamal Khera “discuss the next steps in our Liberal government’s work to build a better, stronger and more resilient Canada,” reads a notice of the event.

The prime minister’s pit stop at Brampton’s Dreams Convention Centre comes after an upset byelection defeat in the Liberal stronghold riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s this week.

The Conservative’s Don Stewart managed to unseat the Liberals by just 590 votes – a result that sparked questions about Trudeau’s leadership and the Liberals’ political prospects.

“This was obviously not the result we wanted, but I want to be clear that I hear people’s concerns and frustrations,” Trudeau told reporters following the defeat in what he called a “”tightly fought race.”

“These are not easy times and it’s clear that I, and my entire Liberal team, have much more work to do to deliver tangible, real progress that Canadians across the country can see and feel…My focus is on your success, and that’s where it’s going to stay.”

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Immigration Minister Marc Miller said yesterday that voters sent the Liberals a message they can’t ignore, adding the party needs to hear people out and “get back on the horse.”

“We need to listen to the people that voted in the way they voted, screw our heads on better and then move on.”

Andrew Kirsch of the Jewish Ally group, who also ran for the Progressive Conservatives in the riding in the 2018 provincial election, has said the Conservative win could have been a reaction from the Liberal government’s stand on Israel and the war in Gaza.

The riding has seen ongoing protests over the war, with Kirsch saying community members feel “abandoned” by the Liberals, and believes that played a bigger role in the results than any views about the Israel-Hamas war itself.

Despite low polling numbers, ministers who spoke Wednesday said they stand by the prime minister and say Trudeau is the best person to lead the Liberals into the next election against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

– With files from The Canadian Press