Storm clouds still heavy around Liberals

All eyes will be on Trudeau this week as cabinet meets for annual retreat in Halifax

- MIA RABSON

Speculation about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's future has been a favourite game in Canadian political circles for years, although he has not suggested that he is even considering leaving.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will kick off a three-day cabinet retreat in Halifax on Sunday, where the themes are fairness and Canada-U.S. relations, but the feelings are all about déjà vu.

A year ago in Charlotte-town the cabinet hoped its annual post-summer retreat and the massive cabinet shuffle that preceded it would give new life to the Liberal government.

Spoiler alert: They did not.

Trudeau and his team are so far behind the Conservatives in the polls that if they were on a running track they’d have been lapped by now, and with the next election at most a year away, the runway to recover is growing shorter by the day.

Interest rates have started to come down. Inflation is back in a normal range. Wage growth has been strong.

But housing costs and availability remain extremely challenging, food prices are still high and the Liberals have been unable to counter messaging from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre that life has become more expensive and unsafe under Trudeau’s watch.

In June, the Liberals lost a longheld Toronto seat to the Conservatives, further eroding what was left of the fragile confidence the party had that they could stage a miraculous comeback with Trudeau still at the helm.