Liberal MPs are scheduled to meet in Ottawa this week to brainstorm ideas on party strategies before the House of Commons resumes its sessions on Monday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is also sure to hear more complaints from his caucus as the Liberals continue to trail the Conservatives by a wide margin in opinion polls.

The Liberal party meeting comes after the federal cabinet held a meeting in Montreal to plan government priorities for the coming months.

This includes preparing for the possibility of Donald Trump serving another presidential term and attempting to slow the flow of international students who are putting pressure on the housing supply in Canada.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc also announced plans to host a car theft summit in Ottawa in early February.

This in response to MPs saying they have heard many voters talk about stolen cars in recent weeks.

The Canadian Insurance Bureau warned last year that car theft had reached crisis levels in this country and was getting worse.

Ontario and Quebec are particularly affected, with the number of stolen vehicles jumping by about 50 percent in both provinces in 2022.

The bureau reported that in the first six months of 2023, Ontario saw another 31 percent jump in car thefts, and in Quebec, the figure increased by 17 percent.

The Liberals enter the winter session still well behind the Conservatives in the polls, after the fall sitting did nothing to change their trajectory.

The last party meeting in September sharply criticized Trudeau on this issue, with dozens of Liberal MPs staring into the abyss of defeat.

Current polls indicate that the election held today would cut the number of Liberal MPs by up to half, including two-thirds of their caucus in Ontario.

The government took another hit on Tuesday when a federal court judge ruled that its use of the Emergencies Act to end the “Freedom Convoy” protests in 2022 was unreasonable, and the government is appealing the decision.

The Liberals began three days of party meetings on Wednesday with smaller breakout sessions, including meetings of the women’s caucus, rural caucus, and Indigenous caucus.

Regional party conferences are expected to meet on the morning of Thursday before Trudeau addresses all Liberal MPs to start the full caucus meeting in the afternoon.

Another full day of party meetings is scheduled for Friday.