Trudeau resignation: Who is expected to enter the Liberal leadership race?

Justin Trudeau’s nine years as Canada’s prime minister are coming to an end after he announced today that he is stepping down as the leader of the ruling Liberal Party.

That means his party must now find a new leader in order to contest a general election in which opinion polls show it is headed for defeat.

Here are some of the people expected to enter the Liberal leadership race according to the BBC:

Former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland

The Toronto MP is considered one of the leading contenders to replace the outgoing leader and has become one of the best-known members of Trudeau’s team.

While she was considered a trusted senior official in his inner circle, a rift with the prime minister’s office led to her recent abrupt resignation in December.

Her criticism of Trudeau in her public resignation letter increased the pressure on him and made his departure seem inevitable.

Born to a Ukrainian mother in western Alberta, the 56-year-old was a journalist before entering politics.

He entered the House of Commons in 2013 and two years later joined Trudeau’s cabinet.

As foreign minister he helped Canada renegotiate a free trade agreement with the US and Mexico.
She was later appointed deputy prime minister and finance minister—the first woman to hold the position—and oversaw Canada’s economic response to the Covid pandemic.

In her resignation last month, she criticized Trudeau for not being strong enough in his handling of Donald Trump’s threat to impose US tariffs on Canadian goods.

Former central banker Mark Carney

Trudeau himself admitted that he had long been trying to “recruit” Mark Carney into his team.

“He would be a great addition at a time when Canadians need good people to join politics,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO conference in July 2024.

Carney, 59, who has been serving in recent months as a special adviser to Trudeau, has long been considered a contender for the top job.
The Harvard graduate has never held public office, but has a strong financial background, serving at the top of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

He also has expertise in environmental issues through his role as the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action.

Carney is a champion of some Liberal policies that have been unpopular in the country’s conservative circles, such as the federal carbon tax policy, the party’s signature climate policy that critics say is an economic burden on Canadians.

He has already criticized Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, saying his vision for the country’s future is “without a plan” and “mere slogans.”

“I’m the one in the conversation who really deals with business and makes decisions,” he has said.

Anita Anand, Minister of Transport;

Anand is often cited as one of the most ambitious members of the Liberal caucus.

The 57-year-old lawyer entered politics in 2019 when she was elected to represent the constituency of Oakville, just outside Toronto.

An Oxford-educated academic, he has a background in financial market regulation and corporate governance.

Anand was appointed defense minister in 2021, leading Canada’s efforts to provide aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia and to manage a personnel crisis in the Canadian Armed Forces related to sexual misconduct scandals.

When Anand was removed from that department to oversee the Treasury Department, many saw it as a demotion, and Trudeau’s critics went so far as to speculate that it was punishment for her ambitions to one day lead the party.

In December, she was moved again during a cabinet reshuffle, to the roles of transport minister and domestic trade minister.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

The former businessman and international trade expert is another Liberal minister said to be eyeing the party’s top job. However, his journey through the ranks to a major portfolio was slower than Anand’s.

Champagne, 54, joined the House of Commons in 2015 but has since moved through international trade, foreign affairs and most recently the innovation, science and industry department.

Because of his business acumen, political observers see him as a viable option to woo the centrist Liberals.

Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Like Trudeau, Joly represents a constituency in the Montreal area.

For foreign leaders, the 45-year-old is a familiar face as she represents Canada on the world stage starting in 2021.
As the current foreign minister, he has made several trips to Ukraine as a show of support for Canada. He traveled to Jordan to help evacuate Canadian citizens in the area when the Israel-Hamas war broke out.

Jolie has also been at the center of some of the administration’s biggest foreign policy challenges.

The Oxford-educated lawyer is a French-speaking politician who previously ran for mayor of Montreal.

He was personally handpicked by Trudeau to run for a position in politics.

Senior advisers have hailed her ability to work in a room of seven or 700 people and she has long had ambitions to run for Liberal party leader, close friends told Canada’s Macleans magazine.

Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs

LeBlanc, 57, is one of Trudeau’s closest and most trusted allies.
Their friendship is said to be deep and specific since they were young.

He has a history of holding portfolios at difficult times, such as when he became finance minister within hours of Freeland’s bombshell resignation.

LeBlanc also took on the difficult task of accompanying Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago in November to meet with Trump.
The former lawyer has been an MP for more than two decades, having been first elected in 2000 to represent a constituency in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick.

Like Trudeau, LeBlanc was born into a political family.

LeBlanc has shown previous aspirations to lead the party, running in 2008 but losing to Michael Ignatieff. He did not run again in the next leadership race, which Trudeau won.