Race for Canadian Prime Minister’s job gathers momentum

Chrystia Freeland. / X/@cafreeland

The race for electing a successor to Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada has started gaining momentum after former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that she would formally launch her campaign for the country’s top post on Jan.19, a day before the US President-elect Donald Trump assumes office for his second term.

The race has already seen several new faces making bids while others, initially considered strong contenders, have slid into the background.

Chrystia Freeland, who quit Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet hours before she was to present the Fall Financial Statement on Dec.17, 2024, took to her social media handle to announce she will officially launch her campaign on Jan.19.

Freeland’s first policy promise will be to impose dollar-for-dollar tariffs on U.S. imports to match the cost of tariffs U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to impose on Canada.

After she quit, Chandra Arya, was the first member of the Liberal caucus, to throw his weight behind Chrystia Freeland. Later, Chandra Arya threw his hat in the race.

Besides Chrystia Freeland, another man from Finance, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney ended nearly a decade of speculation about his political ambitions. He announced his plan to run for the leadership of the troubled Liberal government. He has been heading the Liberal task force on economic growth for some time.

Carney’s supporters see him as a strong economic candidate, as the Liberals struggle to address the growing expense of basic needs in Canada and defend against criticism about government spending. He has been on the radar of the Conservatives, the official Opposition party, by branding him as “carbon tax Carney.”

Member of Parliament Chandra Arya for Nepean was the first to announce he would be running for the leadership of the Liberal Party in a social media post.

“I am running to be the next Prime Minister of Canada to lead a small, more efficient government to rebuild our nation and secure prosperity for future generations,” read his post.

Arya launched a website detailing his policy proposals soon after announcing his candidature last week.

He was first elected to Parliament in 2015 and before entering politics, he was an executive in the high-technology sector. 

Former Montreal MP Frank Baylis has been another candidate who declared his intent to enter the race.

Baylis was first elected in 2015 but did not run for re-election in 2019. As a businessman, he is currently the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Baylis Medical Technologies, which his mother founded in the early 1980s. He was president of the company, which develops, manufactures and sells medical devices.

Another candidate in the leadership run is Sydney-Victoria MP Jaime Battiste. In a social media post, he said he is forming an exploratory team to consider running to replace Justin Trudeau and become the first Indigenous leader of a major political party in Canada.

The lawyer, former professor and Assembly of First Nations regional chief says someone has to take the lead as a First Nations person to throw their hat in the ring, and that if nothing else he hopes he can inspire people and get them excited about Indigenous candidates.

Another candidate thinking of joining the race is House Leader Karina Gould. She has been House Leader since July 2023. As Burlington MP, she has been in Ottawa since being elected in 2015. She was previously the Minister of Democratic Institutions, Minister of International Development and Minister of Families, Children and Social Development.

The Minister of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc, said that despite receiving encouragement to make a run at the leadership, “threats of a looming trade war” brain-child by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump requires “nothing less than my full attention.”

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Melanie Joly, says that though she wants and is also ready to become the first female leader of the Liberal party, she cannot quit her Cabinet posting at a “crucial time” in Canada-US relations.   

Another contender for the top Liberal post, Transport and Internal Trade Minister, Anita Anand, has announced her plans to return to academics and not to seek re-election to the House of Commons at the end of her current term.

The Labour Minister, Steven Mackinnon, thinks time at his command is too short for the kind of campaign he would like to run.

Another strong candidate to bow out of the race is Former BC Premier Christy Clark, after her initial projections as a probable replacement for Justin Trudeau, has decided not to run as “there is simply not enough time” to put together a successful campaign.

She is joined by MP François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, who also would not be running in the leadership race.  

The Liberal Party has made it known that it would name a successor to Justin Trudeau early in the second week of March.