(Ottawa) While Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday that he would not run in his Montreal riding of Papineau in the next election, we learned that Mark Carney will launch his campaign to lead the Liberal Party of Canada on Thursday in Edmonton.
Posted at 1:10 p.m.
Updated at 6:11 p.m.
A little over a week after Mr. Trudeau announced that he would resign as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he confirmed on Wednesday that he would not be a Liberal candidate in the next election.
For his part, Mark Carney will launch his campaign to lead the Liberal Party of Canada in Edmonton on Thursday, indicates a letter of support from Calgary MP George Chahal.
Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and then the Bank of England, will officially enter the race a week before the January 23 deadline, which is fast approaching for potential candidates.
Read the article “A Ghost Named Mark Carney”
Former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and current Minister Karina Gould are also expected to launch their campaigns in the coming days to replace Prime Minister Trudeau.
Under rules established by Liberal Party authorities, candidates must pay the $350,000 entry fee in four installments between January 23 and February 17, starting with a refundable payment of $50,000. The other three payments are non-refundable.
Fred DeLorey of NorthStar Public Affairs, who ran Erin O’Toole’s Conservative leadership campaign in 2020 and managed the party’s national campaign in 2021, believes that with this tight schedule, Mr. Carney and Mme Freeland will have the field to themselves.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Mark Carney was governor of the Bank of Canada and then the Bank of England.
“I think there will be two candidates on the ballot. I don’t see other people raising that much money, especially when you’re new to this, said the veteran organizer. I would bet money on that. »
Martha Hall Findlay, who ran for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 2013 against Mr. Trudeau but left the party long ago, believes lesser-known candidates will have difficulty raising such a large amount in so little time.
She believes that it is not “inappropriate for the party to demand a high entry fee”, because this helps narrow the race to the most serious candidates.
“It’s pretty clear that the race is between Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney and they both have a very, very good relationship,” Ms.me Findlay, who now heads the school of public policy at the University of Calgary. “I don’t think they’ll have any trouble raising the money, especially for a shorter campaign. »
High spending limit
Candidates will be limited to a spending cap of $5 million during the race, which ends with the March 9 vote.
A Liberal Party source familiar with the rulemaking, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the spending cap was higher in anticipation of candidates’ unexpected costs from the short campaign, such as surcharges for last minute reservations.
Mr. DeLorey would be “stunned” to see one of the candidates spend 5 million, an “incredible amount”, according to him, for such a short campaign. “Mr. Carney and Mr.me Freeland are part of the Bay Street elite, so maybe…” he added.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland
When Justin Trudeau ran for the party leadership in 2013, in a race that lasted nearly a year, candidates were limited to $950,000 in spending.
The Canada Elections Act states that party leadership candidates can only personally contribute $25,000 to their own campaign. They must find the rest through fundraising and individuals can donate up to $1,750 to a leadership candidate.
The Liberal Party as a whole shows only 3.3 million in the latest quarterly financial result published on the Elections Canada website, which covers the period ending in September 2024. The party generally hits the 5 million mark around a year ago. every other quarter each year.
The Conservative Party had set a spending limit of $7 million in 2022 for a leadership race that lasted about seven months.
The Liberal Party also set a debt limit for candidates of $200,000 at any time during the race. The debt limit during the 2013 race was $75,000.
Carney already has support
The authorities of the Liberal Party of Canada have not yet defined the rules relating to the vote.
The Minister of Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, and the Minister of Finance, Dominic LeBlanc, have all ruled out showing up in recent days.
It was MP George Chahal of Calgary who announced Wednesday that Mr. Carney would enter the race in Edmonton on Thursday. He asked his supporters to attend to support this candidacy.
Liberal MP Patrick Weiler of Vancouver, who called on Mr. Trudeau to resign last year, also lent his support to Mr. Carney on Wednesday. Other members of the caucus, such as Immigration Minister Marc Miller, refused to give their opinion. Mr. Miller said he planned not to disclose his preference.
Mark Carney made a notable appearance at the Daily Show by Jon Stewart earlier this week. The video has been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube.
Little time to organize elections
The next Liberal leader will need to quickly ensure the party is ready for a snap general election once the brief leadership race ends on March 9.
The Liberals say they have 129 nominated candidates in 343 federal ridings, while the Conservatives say they have nearly 221 and the New Democrats 93.
The Liberals currently have 153 MPs in the House of Commons, but many key MPs have said they will not seek re-election – including Transport Minister Anita Anand and ex-ministers Marie-Claude Bibeau, Seamus O ‘Regan and Dan Vandal.
University of Toronto political science professor Randy Besco believes the next Liberal leader will have to quickly develop his “campaign machine” because Mr. Trudeau’s inner circle may not be willing to stay in office under the leadership of a new person.
“There aren’t many people qualified to run a national campaign – 10 or 20 across the country. It’s really very little, in fact, compared to the United States or elsewhere, Mr. Besco pointed out. This will be a big challenge for the party. »
The Liberals will not have too much difficulty finding candidates, according to Professor Besco, but they will probably have difficulty attracting “stars”, given the Conservatives’ solid lead in voting intentions.
Candidates who come out late in the race won’t have spent much time knocking on doors and fundraising before the election campaign begins, he said. “It’s also going to be a problem for the liberals. »
