Trudeau says he 'can't wait' to get into it with Poilievre in Parliament

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he 'can't wait' to get back to Ottawa to get into it with Pierre Poilievre in the House of Commons, as he makes the case to his own party to put up a united front against the Conservatives.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "can't wait" to get back to Ottawa to get into it with Pierre Poilievre in the House of Commons, he said Wednesday as he made the case to his own party to put up a united front against the Conservatives. 

The three-day Liberal caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., was Trudeau's first chance to address his MPs as a group since they lost a long-held Liberal riding in Toronto to the Conservatives. 

The loss led to a fractious summer punctuated by calls inside and outside of caucus for a new leader. 

The focus of the gathering has been to reunite the party and turn their focus to the Tories. 

"I can't wait to continue getting into it this fall with Poilievre, whose perspective is cuts are the only way forward," Trudeau told reporters outside the closed-door meeting Wednesday.

Before the meeting began, Quebec Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès told Radio-Canada that while she supports Trudeau as leader, she has heard from constituents who are adamant the prime minister needs to go.

Despite grumblings before the retreat, Liberals who spoke publicly on the sidelines of the meetings have, so far, expressed positivity about their party's approach to the coming election year.