Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to Replace Him in March

The Liberal Party of Canada confirmed on Thursday that it would replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a new leader on March 9.

Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday, blaming Liberal infighting – and not years of disastrous policies that have triggered a housing crisis, the deterioration of the socialist healthcare system, and rampant crime – for his demise. Canada is poised to hold a general election by October at the latest, but the rival Conservative Party, hoping to capitalize on high approval ratings and the widespread unpopularity of the Liberals, is advocating for a snap election as soon as possible.

Trudeau used his power as prime minister to “prorogue,” or essentially paralyze, Parliament through March 24 to allow the Liberals to replace him as leader, giving them months to campaign and attempt to erase the memory of Trudeau’s divisive final days from the minds of voters. Both the Conservatives and the far-left New Democratic Party (NDP), which often collaborates with the Liberals, have suggested elections much sooner, but the likelihood of voting before prorogation concludes is low.

The Liberal Party board of directors confirmed on Thursday that they would be ready with a leader by March 9, regardless of when elections are ultimately held. The Party still needs to finalize all rules for candidates seeking to run in the election, the Canadian Press reported on Thursday, but potential replacements for Trudeau will have to declare their intent by January 23 and pay $350,000 as an “entry fee” into the leadership race.

The Liberals currently have only two official candidates competing for the party leadership: Ontario Liberal MP Chandra Arya and former Montreal MP Frank Baylis. A host of other – in some cases, more popular – candidates are said to be organizing campaigns, however, reportedly including top Liberal Chrystia Freeland, whose resignation from Trudeau’s cabinet in December was widely considered the death knell of the decade-old Trudeau administration.

Freeland, one of Trudeau’s longest-standing political confidantes, resigned in a scathing letter in which she declared herself and Trudeau “at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” citing threats by American President-elect Donald Trump to impose onerous tariffs on Canada as a critical issue on which she felt Trudeau was weak.

The Globe and Mail, citing anonymous sources in the various camps, listed Freeland alongside several other well-known Liberals who are reportedly planning to throw their hats in the ring. Freeland was serving as deputy prime minister when she resigned and has previously served as economic and foreign minister.

Another prominent candidate is expected to be Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada. Conservatives have already begun campaigning against him, branding him “Carbon Tax Carney.”

Freeland, the Globe and Mail reported, who already has a draft campaign website established, is perhaps the most organized candidate on the list of candidates not yet making their run official. Others the newspaper listed as potential candidates are Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, as well as “Employment Minister Steven MacKinnon, Transport Minister Anita Anand, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and House Leader Karina Gould.”

The Canadian newspaper observed that one wrinkle in the candidacies of several francophone potential candidates is that the Liberal Party maintains an unofficial policy of not electing two francophone or two anglophone leaders in succession. Trudeau began his political career in Quebec and is considered representative of Francophone Canada. The Party has not publicly weighed in on whether or not it would officially implement language representation requirements for candidates at press time.

The road to choosing a new leader has already experienced some shortcomings as the Liberals face nationwide mockery for doing little to protect the integrity of their election. Initially, election rules stated that anyone in Canada over the age of 14 who “support[s] the purposes of the party” could vote for its leader. Canadians began jokingly registering their pets, living and dead, to vote, and publishing confirmation emails from the Liberal Party that indicated the pets would be allowed to vote.

“The Liberal Party of Canada is aware of these ridiculous, fraudulent registration attempts,” Liberal party communications director Parker Lund confirmed on Thursday. “The national Party Secretary has the ability to remove registrants from our lists, and will be removing these fraudulent profiles well in advance of any leadership vote.”

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, widely expected to become Canada’s next prime minister if polling remains stable from now through the election, is campaigning against all would-be Liberal leaders by declaring them indistinguishable from Trudeau.

“Every Liberal MP in power today, and every potential Liberal leadership contender fighting for the top job helped Justin Trudeau break the country over the last 9 years,” Poilievre said on Monday, responding to Trudeau’s resignation. “All Liberal politicians actively worked to pass into law the job killing, inflationary carbon tax.”

Poilievre repeated the assertion in a press conference on Thursday, announcing, “In the next election, I will be running against Justin Trudeau – whether his name is Justin Trudeau or his name is Chrystia Freeland or ‘carbon tax’ Carney or ‘carbon tax’ [Christy] Clark, they will all be Justin Trudeau.”

“Why did they get rid of him? Did Liberal MPs get rid of him because they disagree with his policies?” he asked. “No, they say he’s doing a great job, it’s just that Canadians, unfairly, don’t like him anymore and that unpopularity threatens their power, paychecks, and pension.”

“And so right before an election, the liberal MPs want to elect another Justin Trudeau who has a different face,” he concluded.

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