More ministers appointed by Justin Trudeau would prefer to see Mark Carney than their former colleague Chrystia Freeland become their leader, as the nomination period for the leadership race of the Liberal Party of Canada (PLC) ends.
A compilation of Duty indicates that the former governor of the Bank of Canada, who has never been elected, currently has the support of at least twelve cabinet members, compared to only five for his main rival, the former minister of Canada’s Finance Chrystia Freeland, herself an important figure in the Trudeau cabinet until her resounding resignation in December.
Two ministers who were weighing the idea of entering the race themselves joined Mark Carney’s campaign on Thursday: Jobs Minister Steven MacKinnon, as well as Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Jonathan Wilkinson. They have expanded the clan already joined by Quebec ministers Mélanie Joly, François-Phillippe Champagne and Steven Guilbeault.
For her part, Chrystia Freeland appeared at a meeting of the Liberal caucus on Thursday flanked by the Minister of Justice, Arif Virani, and her colleague at International Development, Ahmed Hussen. “The Liberal Party is gaining strength in its base, and that is where the power must be,” sent Mr.me Freeland on his social networks Thursday. At the same time, Mr. Carney publicized the support of yet another minister, Rechie Valdez, for the Small Business portfolio.
At the time these lines were written, no government minister had yet supported one of the three other campaigns, namely those of Karina Gould, the government House leader, and Frank Baylis, Montreal businessman and former MP, or even Chandra Arya, an elected official from the Ottawa region. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and 20 of his ministers, the majority of them, have still not announced their support for a candidate.
The list will not grow
It is no longer possible to add your name to try your chance to replace Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada since Thursday, 5 p.m. Under the rules of the race, all applications must have been duly submitted, accompanied by a payment of $50,000 as the first installment of the $350,000 entry fee.
-Candidates must also have collected the signatures of 300 registered Liberals, at least a third of whom come from three different provinces or territories. “Upon receipt of the candidacy file, the party has ten days to approve a potential candidate for leadership,” explains Liberal Party spokesperson Matteo Rossi.
It is therefore possible that one or more candidates, among the five announced, will be rejected by the National Campaign Committee of the PLC. In addition, Elections Canada must also give the green light for each of them before the party can publish the official list of candidates on the starting line.
To be eligible to vote for the next Liberal leader, Canadian citizens or permanent residents only have a few days left to register with the party, until Monday, January 27. Unlike other political groups, the PLC does not call its activists “members”, but rather “registered liberals”. It offers free membership, as long as you are not already a member of another political party and are ready to adhere to certain values. The PLC must also publish the procedure for voting on Monday.
The counting of the votes of registered Liberals will take place on Sunday March 9, 2025. The name of the new leader will be revealed the same day. Canada’s constitutional convention dictates that the next leader of the Liberal Party also become the 24e prime minister. This person will face an American president who speaks of the imminent annexation of Canada under economic coercion, as well as a hostile Parliament motivated to defeat his government as soon as he returns to the House on March 24.
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