After 12 years leading the Liberal Party of Canada, Prime Minister 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.
In Canada’s political system, the leader of the Liberal Party, as the head of the largest party in the House of Commons, is also prime minister; when Mr. Trudeau’s replacement as party leader is chosen, they will assume the position as well.
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 October, but the government, under its new prime minister, is expected to fall long before then through a vote in the House of Commons.
Mr. Trudeau said the Liberal Party would choose his successor through a vote by its members, a relatively small portion of Canada’s population. While no one has yet announced their candidacy to succeed Mr. Trudeau, here are some possible contenders.
Chrystia Freeland
The resignation last month of Chrystia Freeland, the former deputy prime minister and finance minister, incited widespread speculation that she would start her own bid to run the Liberal Party.
Ms. Freeland had a successful career in Canada as a senior editor at The Globe and Mail in Toronto and as an international journalist working as a correspondent and newsroom leader for the Financial Times and Reuters. Ms. Freeland, who was born and raised in Alberta, returned to Canada to join Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals in 2013. She is married to a reporter on the Culture desk of The New York Times.
After the Liberals subsequently came to power, she played important roles in resolving several major issues for Mr. Trudeau, in particular negotiating the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement during the first Trump administration.
On Monday, Mr. Trudeau had kind words for Ms. Freeland, although he declined to share what transpired between them. People familiar with the events surrounding her departure said that Mr. Trudeau had attempted to fire her over a video call and offered her a minister-without-portfolio position, which she declined.
Mélanie Joly
Mélanie Joly has been Canada’s top diplomat since 2021. Mr. Trudeau encouraged her to take the next step in her political career by accepting the foreign affairs role despite her own hesitations: Ms. Joly was concerned about how the job might affect her fertility treatments.
Ms. Joly has brought her own brand of pragmatic diplomacy to the role, reinforcing the importance of Canada working with leaders who have opposing views on foreign policy.
“There’s that movement — which I am profoundly against — which is if you don’t engage with countries, you’re sending a message that you’re strong,” she told The Times. “I think that to be strong is to be able to have the tough conversations.”
Ms. 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
Mr. 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 Ms. Freeland as finance minister. Mr. Carney and Ms. Freeland are longtime friends, and he is the godfather of one of her children.
Those efforts to pursue Mr. Carney unraveled after Ms. Freeland’s public rift with Mr. Trudeau and her resignation from cabinet. Since then, Canadian news outlets reported, Mr. Carney has been calling Liberal members of parliament 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, Mr. Carney earned a reputation for sermonic talks that veered into the political, including his views on the financial dangers of climate change. In his recent book, “Values,” Mr. Carney offered a withering critique of capitalism and a proposition that markets ought to serve citizens.
Christy Clark
Christy Clark was until 2017 the leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, a smaller party not directly affiliated with the national Liberal Party and which is considered to be politically further to the right.
Ms. Clark served as premier of British Columbia from 2011 to 2017. She left politics that year after her minority government lost a confidence vote.
Ms. Clark, a former radio show host and vocal critic of Mr. Trudeau, has said she would be interested in leading the national Liberals but has not yet confirmed her candidacy.
Who’s out?
Dominic LeBlanc, a longtime friend of Mr. Trudeau who became finance minister when Ms. Freeland resigned, was viewed as a front-runner in the leadership race. But he put rumors of a campaign to a rest two days after Mr. Trudeau’s resignation, announcing that he would not seek the nomination. Instead, Mr. LeBlanc said that he intends to run as a member of Parliament under the new Liberal leader in the next federal election.
Mr. LeBlanc was first elected to Parliament in 2000.
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