Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there’s a backlash against progressive policies, and that, despite pressure, he is staying on as leader to ensure continued focus on such issues as diversity and climate change.

“The big thing is to make sure that Canadians understand that the choice they get to make in the next election, about the kind of country we are really matters, and that’s the work we’re going to continue to do,” Trudeau said in September after his party lost the byelection in Montreal’s Lasalle-Émard-Verdun, which had previously been a Liberal stronghold.

In his interview with Erskine-Smith, Trudeau communicated the same line of thought as his September comment, but the tone he used was more similar to ones he employs when addressing an ideologically aligned audience, rather than the general public, perhaps because the host was his own caucus member.

“We have worked so hard for so many years to get Canada to a position where the coming decades are going to be so good for us that the idea that a short-term mistake—like electing a Conservative government that wants to bring us back to some past that never actually existed and give up on climate change and give up on inclusion—like all these things, it just would be so devastating to everything that we have been able to build,” he said.

When asked about the pressure to step down as leader and why he thinks he’s the right person to lead the Liberals to victory, Trudeau told Erskine-Smith that his priorities for the country are a matter of principle, not to be abandoned due to bad polling.

“Let’s look at people who are saying, ‘Oh, I’m not sure.’ Would they be saying that if I was 10 points ahead in the polls right now?” he said.

“Are there a lot of Liberals who are thinking that Justin’s priorities aren’t in the right place, or Justin doesn’t have the fight in him, or Justin is wrong to be continuing to believe in protecting the environment and growing the economy and protecting women’s rights and stuff? In terms of the substance of what we’re doing, I think that’s pretty much the fight.”

He added, “Do I still have the understanding of what this is going to take to win the next election? Absolutely. Better than just about anyone else, because I have been fighting through crises and fighting against Conservative opponents who are trying to undo this and bring Canadians backwards and polarize them.”

Trudeau has often emphasized his focus on a “progressive” direction for the country in his public remarks.

“There’s a serious credibility to what we do that oftentimes sets us apart from the NDP, who might have shared priorities but don’t have the same ability to deliver—not only electrically but in planning,” Erskine-Smith said.

Whether Erskine-Smith’s comments about Liberal versus NDP electoral fortunes are true or not federally, on a provincial level, in several provinces the Liberals have no or very few legislators, while the NDP, which has historically been the party on the left, has been taking the progressive votes in contending with the main right-leaning party. This is currently most evident in provinces west of Ontario.