Weighing the impact of his party's dismal election result, and sidestepping the question of his own leadership potential, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau says finding someone to lead the Grits isn't a top priority.
In an interview with CTV News Channel on Wednesday, the Montreal-area MP said his party needs to regroup, not hunt for a leader.
"It's way too early and the one thing that we have, unfortunately, is time," he said, recognizing that the Conservatives' majority mandate will likely translate into more than four years of Tory government.
"Rushing into things in the next days is not going to be well-serving either the party or the country."
The Liberals have gone from official opposition to third party status after voters reduced their caucus from 77 to 34 seats and spurred leader Michael Ignatieff, who lost his own seat in Toronto, to announce his impending resignation.
As the eldest son of former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau, many are looking to Justin as a potential candidate to take the party into the future.
But, without taking his name out of contention, Trudeau dismissed the idea of plunging his party into a leadership race anytime soon.
"We've done it far too often in the past few years," he said, suggesting that simply picking a new leader would do little to fix what ails his party.
"It's not a problem just shifting at the top is going to fix. We have to work at the bottom. We have to start rebuilding the grassroots," he said.
And that doesn't necessarily mean forging a new political identity. Instead Trudeau says it's a matter of finding a way to make the party's message appealing for voters.
"Fundamentally we need to reach out and connect with Canadians at an almost emotional level, not just an intellectual level. Our capacity to do that, however, doesn't rely on any one person or getting just the right leader."
Predicting the impact of voters' shift away from the traditionally centrist Liberal party to the more left-leaning NDP on one hand, and the right-leaning Conservatives on the other, Trudeau expects that new political landscape will eventually serve to underscore his party's appeal.
"I do not think that Canada will be well served by the kinds of polarization we see in the United States right now, where the right is the right and the left is the left and never the two shall get along," he said.
The Liberals will continue to occupy the middle of the political spectrum, he added, "and I think there continues to be a role for that progressive, responsible voice."
Trudeau, who is one of only 6 Liberals heading to Ottawa from Quebec, also says voters would be unwise to dismiss the Liberals simply due to their diminished numbers -- not least because of the "concentration of experience" in the few Grit MPs left.
"Our capacity to hold this government to account and hold the opposition to account with our experience and our values is going to be a game-changer, I think."
