Disgruntled Liberal MPs are expected to confront Trudeau at party caucus meeting today

As national polls suggest the Liberal Party is headed for defeat in the next election, some disaffected Liberal MPs are expected to take the mic today at their national caucus meeting to urge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call it quits.

After nine years in government, Trudeau's popularity has plummeted. The CBC Poll Tracker shows the Conservatives have a 19-point lead over the governing Liberals, a margin that suggests dozens of Liberal MPs could be out of a job after the next vote.

The prospect of an electoral implosion has led some Liberal MPs to organize an effort to oust Trudeau as party leader.

CBC News has reported that more than 20 Liberal MPs met in secret and signed a document committing themselves to trying to force Trudeau out of the party leadership.

Three MPs have come forward publicly to say they have signed the letter: Newfoundland's Ken McDonald, Prince Edward Island's Sean Casey and New Brunswick's Wayne Long.

All three of those MPs are longstanding critics of Trudeau. The names of other MPs who have signed the letter may also be made known today.

No one seems to know what could come out of this potentially fractious caucus meeting, or whether a letter bearing the names of disgruntled MPs will prompt Trudeau to change his mind.

Trudeau could decide to press on as leader even if he's dealing with significant discontent in his caucus. He has said repeatedly that he will lead the party into the next election.

McDonald, Casey and Long have all said that while they want Trudeau to go, they're yet not willing to leave the party and sit as Independents.

The move to oust Trudeau could lead to a seismic development in federal politics — or simply fizzle out like past efforts to challenge the prime minister.

It's not just the polls that signal trouble on the horizon for the Liberals. Liberal MPs are also anxious about Trudeau and his team losing two byelections in historically rock-solid Liberal ridings in Toronto and Montreal.

The Liberal candidate in another recent Winnipeg-area byelection posted one of the worst results for a governing party in Canadian history.

The party's national campaign director quit in early September. The party took weeks to announce a replacement.

Four more of Trudeau's cabinet ministers have announced, or are expected to announce soon, that they will not run again in the next election, sources have told CBC News.