As more Liberal candidate ministers announce they won’t run in the next Liberal leadership race, the list of potential candidates narrows.
The Liberal Party of Canada announced last week that the race to elect the party’s next leader and Canada’s next Prime Minister will conclude on Mar. 9, 2025. The race began after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would resign as party leader and PM pending the leadership race results.
Liberal Labour Minister Steven Mackinnon announced Sunday that he won’t be in the running to replace Trudeau as party leader.
“This is no ordinary time. The Liberal Party of Canada is at a crossroads, and must make important decisions very quickly,” he said in a statement released to X. “The leadership race requires diverse, experienced and pragmatic voices, both in French and in English. I believe that I could be such a voice. Unfortunately, the time available does not allow me to mount the kind of campaign that I would want to run.”
He said he would run again in the Gatineau riding in the next election but would focus his “full attention” on his role as labour minister until then.
Transportation Minister Anita Anand announced to social media on Saturday that she will not be running in the race either. She said she will not seek re-election in the imminent general election and will continue to work as a Liberal MP and cabinet minister until an election is called.
“After the 2019 election, I took a leave of absence, intending to return one day to academia. The joy and fulfillment that I take in our current work — collaborating with the Prime Minister, my Cabinet colleagues, our caucus and the broader team — delayed this decision,” she said in a statement released on X.
Before seeking public office, Anand was a lawyer and law professor for twenty years and worked in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.
“Now that the Prime Minister has made his decision to move to his next chapter, I have determined the time is right for me to do the same and to return to my prior professional life of teaching, research and public policy analyses,” Anand said.
Former B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced that she is seriously considering a bid for LPC leadership.
“(Poilievre’s) the most divisive politician we’ve seen in years and I felt it was my duty as a Canadian to stop him in his tracks,” she said in a post on Friday. “I’m thinking carefully about running because he still needs to be stopped. But if we want to do that, our party has to accept change.”
Well, I misspoke.
— Christy Clark (@christyclarkbc) January 11, 2025
Sh*t happens.
Lesson learned 🤦♀️ …
I have always been clear that I supported Jean Charest to stop Pierre Poilievre. Not backing away from that. He’s the most divisive politician we’ve seen in years and I felt it was my duty as a Cdn to stop him in his…
Clark said she was considering a leadership bid if Trudeau resigned in October, amid the Liberals’ ongoing struggles in the polls and mounting pressure from the caucus to oust Trudeau.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and the recently appointed Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc have bowed out from the race. They both vowed to instead focus on their cabinet roles ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on day one of his administration.
Trump is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025.
Only two candidates have officially announced their bid for leadership so far. Chandra Arya, a Liberal MP who opposed a foreign agent registry which would force agents of foreign governments to register their activities in Canada – and former MP Frank Baylis.
Baylis and his medical supplies company, Baylis Medical, have been subject to ethics committee investigations after Conservatives noted the former Liberal MP’s company had received millions of taxpayer handouts from the Liberal government.
Government House leader Karina Gould told reporters on Sunday that she was also “seriously considering” running in the Liberal Leadership race.
According to the National Post, François-Philippe Champagne is also considering a run for leadership, though he said he would have to see the rules of the race before announcing his bid.
Champagne has been the subject of a Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) whistleblower’s allegations that he lied during committee meetings, knowing about the mishandling of funds in the green-tech fund.
Champagne was also set to take over as the Finance Minister following the resignation of former minister Chrystia Freeland last month, though he rejected the appointment.
Both Freeland and the former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney are expected to announce their run for party leadership, though both have remained mum on the race so far.
