After 12 years leading the Liberal Party, Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau on Monday said he was stepping down. His resignation sets off a succession battle in which some of the party’s most prominent faces will vie to replace him. Trudeau’s replacement as party leader will also assume PM’s position. That politician will take the party to general elections to face the Conservatives and their leader, Pierre Poilievre, who are dominating public opinion polls. Elections must be held no later than Oct, but the govt, under its new PM, is expected to fall long before then through a vote in House of Commons. Trudeau said the Liberal Party would choose his successor through a vote by its members. While no one has yet announced their candidacy, here are some possible contenders.
Chrystia Freeland:
The resignation last month of Chrystia Freeland, the former deputy PM and finance minister, incited widespread speculation that she would start her own bid to run the Liberal Party. Freeland had a successful career in Canada as a senior editor at Globe and Mail in Toronto and as an international journalist working as a correspondent and newsroom leader for Financial Times and Reuters. Freeland returned to Canada to join Trudeau’s Liberals in 2013. She is married to a reporter on the culture desk of NYT. She played important roles in resolving major issues for Trudeau, in particular negotiating the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement during the first Trump govt.
Dominic LeBlanc:
LeBlanc, who became FM when Freeland resigned, is Trudeau’s longtime friend, and has known him since LeBlanc used to babysit Trudeau and his brothers. Both men were pallbearers in the funerals of each other’s fathers. Trudeau’s father, PM Pierre Trudeau, was once PM, and LeBlanc’s father, Romeo LeBlanc, had served as the elder Trudeau’s press secretary. LeBlanc considered running for Liberal leadership in 2012 but changed his mind when Trudeau told him his intentions to do so.
Melanie Joly:
She has been Canada’s top diplomat since 2021. Trudeau encouraged her to take the next step in her political career by accepting the foreign affairs role despite her own hesitations: Joly was concerned about how the job might affect her fertility treatments. Melanie Joly has led Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, but has also confronted challenges. She expelled six Indian diplomats from Canada, and contended with Chinese and Indian foreign interference allegations.
Mark Carney:
Trudeau’s team had privately been pursuing Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada who also led the Bank of England, to take over for Freeland as FM. Carney and Freeland are longtime friends, and, hence, efforts to pursue Carney unravelled after Freeland’s public rift with Trudeau. Since then, Canadian media reported, Carney has been calling Liberal MPs to ask for their support and advice if he were to make a leadership run. During his time as governor of the Bank of England, Carney earned a reputation for sermonic talks that veered into the political, including his views on the financial dangers of climate change. In his book, Carney offered a withering critique of capitalism and a proposition that markets ought to serve citizens.
