VANCOUVER—The former B.C. director of the Liberal Party of Canada says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should have resigned Tuesday, instead of the party ejecting MPs Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott from caucus.

Michael Haack said Trudeau has broken the pledges he made when he ran for office in 2015 and has angered Canadians over his handling of the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

“We talk about peace, order and good government; that’s been thrown out the door to win,” said Haack, who served as director of operations for the Liberal Party of Canada’s B.C. wing until late 2017. “Seven weeks ago Trudeau could have owned up and apologized.”

“Now it’s too late,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ujjal Dosanjh — B.C.’s former premier who was later health minister under prime minister Paul Martin from 2004 to 2006 — said Tuesday that Trudeau did exactly the wrong thing if he wants to “stanch the bleeding” caused by the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Dosanjh said that instead of booting two of his “star cabinet members” from caucus, Trudeau should immediately “fess up” to his office’s mistakes, apologize and fire his advisers.

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“I say this as a loyal member of the party: The narrative spun by the Prime Minister’s Office has been absolutely incredible, and he needs to change all his advisers,” he said.

Wilson-Raybould is at the centre of a controversy that’s dogged the party for nearly two months, after alleging she was subjected to a sustained campaign of “inappropriate” pressure by Trudeau and his office to persuade her to intervene in the criminal prosecution of Quebec engineering firm SNC-Lavalin. Philpott resigned last month after Wilson-Raybould stepped down from cabinet, saying she was also concerned about the integrity of the justice system.

Wilson-Raybould broke the news of her expulsion in a tweet just as Liberal MPs gathered for a special caucus meeting, ostensibly to decide the fate of her and Philpott. The pair had already resigned their cabinet positions over the controversy.

Speaking to those gathered Tuesday, Trudeau said the two could not continue as Liberals given their public lack of confidence in his leadership and the party.

The decision came despite a last-minute appeal from Wilson-Raybould to her Liberal colleagues to allow her to stay, based on the principles for which she joined the party.

In her two-page letter, Wilson-Raybould said she joined the Liberal party to promote progressive policies on climate change, Indigenous reconciliation, criminal justice and the economy. She said she believed the Liberals wanted to transform “our political culture” and to pursue “a more responsive, representative and less partisan approach to the governing of the country.”

Staffers could be seen inside Wilson-Raybould’s Vancouver constituency office Tuesday evening but they weren’t speaking to the herd of reporters pacing outside on the sidewalk in front of the building.

Both Haack and Dosanjh said time is running out for the Liberals to change course, as a federal election looms before Oct. 21.

Haack said that, after watching a video of Trudeau explaining why the party booted Wilson-Raybould and Philpott, he phoned party headquarters to cancel his monthly donations after years of contributions.

“I won’t be donating any time for the foreseeable future,” he said.

He said the damage done to the Liberals over their handling of the scandal could only have been overcome by Trudeau resigning as leader.

“In an election year, the only way for the party to combat this is for the prime minister to have resigned today.”

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Dosanjh, who served as B.C.’s attorney general before becoming premier, said he was “aghast” at the repeated attempts by the prime minister, his office and the Clerk of the Privy Council to “badger” Wilson-Raybould “over and over and over.”

“As a former attorney general myself, that was highly inappropriate,” Dosanjh said. “Wasn’t there any adult in the room who could tell him what Wilson-Raybould was doing was legally her right?”

With files from Jen St. Denis, Tonda MacCharles and Bruce Campion-Smith

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