Following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation as leader of the Liberal Party on January 6, 2025, there are now five candidates competing to replace him.
This week, the Liberal Party of Canada approved the official candidates to replace Justin Trudeau as Party Leader and Prime Minister. The race sees prominent figures competing for the position, with former Governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney and former Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland as front runners. Liberal MP Jaime Battiste, one of the candidates, dropped out yesterday.
All citizens and permanent residents of Canada who are members or registered supporters of the Liberal Party will elect the next leader on March 9. Parliament will return on March 24 after being frozen since Trudeau’s resignation and it is likely that early elections will be triggered right away.
The total entrance fee for candidates is CAD$350,000, which is more than four times the previous race fee to discourage also-rans and special interest groups, suggest experts. It can be paid in four installments within three weeks before the elections, giving contenders limited time to fundraise.
A tough challenge for candidates is also to separate themselves from Trudeau enough to have a higher approval rate than he does, but not so much that they appear incoherent after being by his side for years.
Mark Carney
Mark Carney, 59, goes all in on his financial expertise. From 2008 to 2013 he served as Governor of the Bank of Canada and he then held the same position at the Bank of England until 2020. Canada’s inflation and high costs of living call for a new plan of action. Trump’s threats need to be addressed. He claims to have the tools and the expertise to guide Canada through these challenges.
As of today, he has most of the support from the Liberal caucus. Liberal MP Jaime Battiste, one of the candidates, dropped out yesterday and endorsed him too.
His weak spot is connected to the Liberal fight against climate change. In the past years he supported the carbon tax as an incentive to reduce pollution. It includes a charge on fuel (like gasoline and natural gas) and a tax for big industries. According to a poll by the Canadian TaxPayers Federation, almost two in three Canadians (64%) want this tax gone and, even if Carney promised to suspend it, his previous support for it is the opposition’s favorite talking point.
In the past few years he also didn’t support the construction of new pipelines in the country, which is a sensitive issue particularly to Canadians from the oil-rich province of Alberta.
Chrystia Freeland
It is also because of Chrystia Freeland’s resignation as Minister of Finance on Dec. 16, 2024, that Liberals are now looking for a new leader. Freeland, 56, is a former journalist who entered politics in 2013.
She has been part of the Trudeau government from its beginning in 2015 to her resignation last December. She resigned the day she was to present the fall economic statement as she had been “at odds” with Trudeau “about the best path forward for Canada.”
Freeland is trying to win voters’ trust by insisting on her experience as Minister of Foreign Affairs during Trump’s first term, claiming that she will be able to stand up to him. She is also promising to reduce the size of the Cabinet and of the Prime Minister’s Office by 50%. She also wants to get rid of the consumer-based carbon tax – which she previously supported – because “to be a good leader, you have to listen to people.”
Karina Gould
Karina Gould, 37, former Liberal House leader and Member of the Board of Internal Economy, is the youngest candidate in the race.
Gould, MP with Trudeau’s Liberals since 2015, is campaigning on cutting down the GST (Good and Services Tax, now at 5%) to 4% in one year and raising corporate taxes on the biggest companies. The former Liberal House leader is presenting herself as a fresh start, a guide to rebuild the party and re-engage its membership.
As of now, she only has a few endorsements from caucus, but she is focused on all Liberal supporters to win the race, she says. The voting system is one member one vote, so on March 9 each vote will count the same.
Frank Baylis
Businessman and politician Frank Baylis, 62, was the first to announce his candidacy to replace Trudeau, even before the party announced the rules and the fee to enter the race.
He served as Member of Parliament for Pierrefonds-Dollard, Québec, in Trudeau’s first government (2015-2019) and he is executive chairman of Baylis Med Tech, a company in the development of medical devices.
He holds pride in not having a long career in politics and being a businessman, as this allows him to bring a different perspective, he claims, as someone “from the real world, who has had real world experiences.”
He doesn’t have any explicit support from the caucus yet and his platform seems far from being as large as Carney’s or Freeland’s.
Ruby Dhalla
Ruby Dhalla, 50, served as Liberal MP from 2004 to 2011 and is presenting herself as an outsider not connected to the Trudeau administration.
During her experience as MP, she stepped down in 2009 from her role as multiculturalism critic to deal with a domestic dispute. She was accused of illegally hiring and mistreating two caregivers employed by her family. She repeatedly denied wrongdoings.
“I was the victim of a Conservative driveby smear campaign,” she recently said.
Former chiropractor, Dhalla, one of the first women of Indian origin to seat in the House, is campaigning on “bringin the Liberal Party back to the center” and deporting “every illegal immigrant living in Canada.” She also attended Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 “to save Canada,” she said.
She claims that the country is broken and Liberals need to start over.
A look outside the Liberal bubble
While Liberals are looking for their next leader, Conservatives are on a roll. Pierre Poilievre, head of the party, gained significant popularity over the past year with continuous attacks on the government, catchy slogans and simple ideas.
Candidates in the Liberal leadership race are focused on Poilievre’s moves, and they are either considering or promising to remove the unpopular carbon tax to – at least partially – try to disarm him.
Many factors are going to weigh into the results of the next elections – which will happen no later than October 2025, but more likely in Spring – including the relationship with the new U.S. administration. The issue is very sensitive to Canadians, especially after Trump’s speculations on malking Canada the 51st state and his threat of a 25% tariff on their products.
There is no certainty on how things will go, and the next two months will be crucial for the Liberal Party and for the whole country too, on both a national and international level.
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