1) MacKinnon won’t join Liberal leadership race, cites lack of time to mount campaign

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Canadian Press Staff, January 12, 2025

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon says he won’t join the race to become the next leader of the Liberal party.

MacKinnon says he feels the competition to become the next leader needs diverse, experienced and pragmatic voices in both English and French.

While he feels he could be that voice, the Gatineau MP says the short length of this leadership race wouldn’t allow him to mount the kind of campaign he wants to run.

Rather than vie for the leadership, he says he will focus on his ministerial responsibilities and will listen closely to help make an informed choice around who should replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau announced in early January that he would resign his role as prime minister and Liberal party leader as soon as a replacement is chosen.

So far, former Montreal MP Frank Baylis and Nepean, Ont., MP Chandra Arya have joined the race, while former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney signalled through his campaign team that he will launch a leadership bid late next week. 

2) Justin Trudeau’s own walk in the snow launched a historic week in federal politics

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By David Baxter, January 12, 2025

“Sunny ways, my friends. Sunny ways.” 

With those words, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began his time in office, having brought the Liberals out of the political wilderness and into a majority government in October 2015.

Those sunny ways followed him into an unseasonably warm November day weeks later, when he attended his official swearing-in at Rideau Hall. As Trudeau made his way up the driveway to the governor general’s residence, he was surrounded by family, members of his new cabinet and throngs of cheering supporters.

For those watching the 23^rd prime minister announce his pending resignation as Liberal leader and prime minister on Monday, the contrast couldn’t have seemed more stark. Trudeau delivered the news following his own walk in the snow to a podium outside Rideau Cottage — and after pages from his farewell speech blew away in the icy wind.

“I’ll wing it,” Trudeau said, smiling.

“This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.”

Just before he spoke, Trudeau’s photographer Adam Scotti captured images of the prime minister with longtime backroom allies — chief of staff Katie Telford, executive assistant Philip Proulx and former communications and planning director Kate Purchase.

Two of Trudeau’s children, Xavier and Ella-Grace, watched their dad speak with Purchase before he walked out of Rideau Cottage to make history.

Tyler Meredith, a former lead economic adviser to Trudeau and author of the 2019 and 2021 Liberal platforms, said Trudeau’s exit follows a common pattern for political leaders — bowing out “at the very last minute.” 

“You have to have a certain ego to be a politician,” Meredith said. “You have to believe in yourself, you have to have confidence in yourself, you have confidence in your ability to overcome challenges. And so, sometimes, that can blind you to making a more rational decision.”

“Pretty much every other premier, every other prime minister in the course of the last number of decades has largely left not voluntarily, or been pushed out by circumstances. I think some people have over-read this as a Trudeau story when I think it’s actually a very normal course and arc of political life.”

But Trudeau isn’t quitting at a normal time. The incoming Donald Trump administration in the U.S. is vowing to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods and the president-elect has mused about annexing Canada through “economic force.”

Immigration Minister Marc Miller, a longtime friend of Trudeau, said Wednesday the prime minister is taking that threat seriously, citing the fact that he attended the Canada-U.S. relations cabinet committee an hour after announcing his resignation. Trudeau is not a regular member of that committee.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday, Trudeau called Trump’s annexation comments a tactic to distract American voters from the likely impacts of 25 per cent tariffs on goods like oil, gas, electricity and steel. It was Trudeau’s first sit-down interview since announcing his resignation.

While Trudeau said Trump’s comments did not influence his decision to resign, they clearly create uncertainty for Canada.

“Trudeau’s resignation at this point leaves Canada in a precarious position. With Trump’s presidency looming and potential economic upheaval ahead, the timing is disastrous. Resigning now only deepens political uncertainty, leaving the country without clear leadership at a critical time,” said Semra Sevi, an assistant political science professor at the University of Toronto. 

Two of the perceived Liberal leadership front-runners — Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly — have ruled themselves out of running for the Liberal leadership to focus on their cabinet responsibilities and responding to the tariff threat.

Joly said Friday that the federal government is looking at imposing retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. if Trump’s threats come to pass.

During the last Trump presidency, Canada imposed targeted tariffs on quintessential American products like Harley Davidson motorcycles and bourbon in response to levies on Canadian steel and aluminum.

While the winner of the Liberal leadership vote on Mar. 9 will become the next prime minister, they’ll have no window in which to attempt to recapture the optimistic momentum of the government’s early days.

Parliament is prorogued until March 24 and confidence votes are expected to follow quickly. All three major opposition leaders plan to bring down the government at the earliest opportunity, setting the stage for a spring election.

As his time in office comes to a close, Trudeau leaves behind a legacy marked by major new programs like the Canada child benefit, the government’s COVID-19 response, the legalization of recreational cannabis and the introduction of carbon pricing.

There are also blemishes on that record: the SNC Lavalin scandal, the furor over Trudeau’s “blackface” photos and criticism of how he worked with members of his caucus. Trudeau’s sometimes fraught relationships with caucus and cabinet hit its lowest point with the stunning resignation of his finance minister Chrystia Freeland; afterward, the calls for his own resignation become too loud for him to ignore. 

His immediate replacement may be in office only long enough to become the answer to a trivia question: “Who was the shortest-serving prime minister in Canadian history?”

Meredith said he believes there’s a “75 per cent” chance of a snap election shortly after the House of Commons reconvenes. Current polling puts the Conservatives in a position to win a convincing majority.

Assuming that happens, Meredith said there’s a “decent possibility” the next Liberal leader continues to lead the party from the opposition benches.

“If that person does relatively well, preserves a number of seats, holds [Conservative Leader Pierre] Poilievre to a smaller majority, or even a minority, that person has a long path of staying as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada,” he said.

But if the election turns into a blowout win for the Conservatives, Meredith said Liberals likely will want to find someone else to lead the party, this time after a longer leadership campaign.

3) (Updated) Clark, Champagne drop out, Gould plans to join Liberal leadership race

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan,  January 14, 2025

The race to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader shifted again on Tuesday when Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne and former B.C. premier Christy Clark both bowed out, and Government House leader Karina Gould signalled she’s in.

The two high-profile departures will cast a spotlight on candidates’ French language skills and their ability to organize support in Quebec, now that the race lacks a strong, bilingual front-runner from a province that’s critical to the Liberals’ electoral fortunes.

Champagne, long seen as a potential successor to Trudeau, said during an armchair talk in Toronto he will not enter the race, adding he plans to focus on ensuring the government is ready to protect Canadian industry from the trade threats posed by incoming U.S. president Donald Trump.

“It was probably the most difficult decision of my life, but I think it was the right one at the right time,” Champagne said. “There are many ways to fight for Canada.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Transport Minister Anita Anand have all ruled out leadership runs recently.

Those cabinet ministers had also featured prominently for years in media speculation about Trudeau’s potential successors, and Joly, LeBlanc and Champagne would have been strong, fluently bilingual candidates.

Clark said in a statement to her supporters that Trudeau had called too short a leadership race to allow her to mount a successful campaign and that she did not develop her French skills well enough to be a strong candidate.

“I have made the difficult decision to step back,” she said. “While we have come a long way, in a short time, there is simply not enough time to mount a successful campaign and for me to effectively connect with francophone Canadians in their language. I have worked hard at improving my French but it’s not where it needs to be today.”

Two more presumed front-runners — former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney — are expected to announce their own leadership bids in the coming days, along with Gould.

Gould played coy at a news conference in Burlington, Ont. on Tuesday, saying she would have more to say in the coming days. The 37-year-old Gould said she thinks it will be “extremely important to have a younger voice in the race who can relate to people where they are and the struggles they’re facing today.”

Ontario MP Chandra Arya and former Montreal MP Frank Baylis also have announced plans to run for the leadership. Cape Breton MP Jaime Battiste says he will run and would become the first Indigenous candidate for prime minister.

Arya raised eyebrows in Ottawa political circles when he said it’s not important for the next leader to be able to speak French.

“I can’t imagine either the leader of our party or the next prime minister not being fluent in French,” Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said in an interview, when asked about the importance of having bilingual leadership candidates. “I don’t see the Liberal party or the country moving backwards on this. It’s something that makes Canada what it is.”

Jonathan Kalles, a consultant at McMillan Vantage and a former Quebec adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office, said leadership candidates will have to quickly denounce Arya’s “outrageous statements or they will have no credibility.”

“It needs to be clear that while there is no francophone Quebecer running in this race, that they understand the priorities, needs and interests of Quebecers, that they have strong Quebec teams … that understand and respect Quebec,” he said. “Otherwise, it will come back to bite them in the next election.”

Both Champagne and Joly are well-connected to the party machinery in Quebec and the remaining candidates can be expected to seek their endorsements. Joly has a decent political organization built up, Kalles said, while Champagne is Quebec co-chair for the Liberal campaign.

Prospective candidates will be hunting for votes from all 78 ridings in Quebec. Each electoral district is allocated 100 points in the leadership contest, according to the party’s constitution.

Stéphanie Chouinard, an associate professor of political science at Queen’s University, said the absence of a strong, bilingual Quebec candidate could make the election a harder slog on the ground for the Liberals in the province, and in other regions of the country with large francophone populations.

“For the few who have said officially that they’re joining the race or who are strongly expected to join, they will have to prove that they understand the province of Quebec and that they can at least minimally convey their message in the language of the majority of that province,” she said.

She said many Liberal supporters see fluency in both languages as an important quality in a leader and a mark of statesmanship.

“It’s not just francophones who will be paying attention to this issue.”

Clark’s announcement that she won’t be running came just days after she was forced to backtrack from her claim that she was never a member of the Conservative party.

In an interview on CBC Radio’s Saturday politics show The House, Clark denied she became a party member and voted for former Quebec premier Jean Charest in the 2022 Conservative leadership race that elected Pierre Poilievre.

Clark said in the interview she never joined the party or received a ballot for the race. But the Conservative party provided a screenshot of their electronic records showing Clark was an active party member from June 2, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

Clark later posted a facepalm emoji on social media, said she misspoke in the interview and acknowledged that she had backed Charest to stop Poilievre from winning.

— With files from Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton and Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa.

4) Jaime Battiste first Indigenous candidate to join Liberal leadership race

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Alessia Passafiume, January 15, 2025

Jaime Battiste says that if he can’t be the most powerful and wealthy candidate in the race for the Liberal party leadership, he hopes to be the most interesting.

On Monday, the MP for Sydney-Victoria, champion powwow dancer and award-winning musician became the only First Nations candidate so far to state his intention to join the leadership race.

“In the 1960s, Indigenous people got the right to vote in Canada,” Battiste said.

“Less than 65 years later, (those same people) have an opportunity to elect, for the first time, an Indigenous prime minister or Indigenous Liberal party leader.”

Battiste, who serves as chair of the Liberal party’s Indigenous caucus, said reforming the First Nations child welfare system and ensuring adequate funding for First Nations police services would be his top priorities as a leadership candidate.

But the Mi’kmaw MP, who grew up in Eskasoni First Nation, said his focus wouldn’t be squarely on Indigenous issues, adding he also thinks Canadians want to see a marked change in environmental policy and in how the country responds to emergencies like wildfires.

He said he would also convene a first ministers meeting to discuss the price on pollution if he were to win the party vote on March 9.

Battiste — a lawyer, former professor and Assembly of First Nations regional chief — said he knows he’s considered a long-shot against high-profile candidates like former central banker Mark Carney and former finance minister Chrystia Freeland.

But he said someone has to be the first 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.

“This is showing resilience, it’s showing what we’ve had to overcome,” he said, adding Indigenous youth don’t always participate in politics outside their communities.

“We don’t know our power because we haven’t really mobilized politically … (Indigenous youth) need to be heard, because only by signing up and being part of this movement can they determine the direction of this country.”

Battiste still has to secure the $350,000 entry fee. He said he has about $60,000 in commitments so far and Indigenous leaders across the country are working their sources to help him reach that target.

To hit that target, he’ll need to raise about $1,000 per hour until the deadline to enter the race on Jan. 23.

“I was a boxer — you fight until the bell rings,” he said.

“That’s what I’m going to continue to do, fight until the end for not only this race, but for our future.”

5) (Updated) Chrystia Freeland, Mark Carney emerge as top contenders in Liberal leadership race

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Anja Karadeglija and Sarah Ritchie, Jan. 17, 2025

Less than five weeks after she resigned her cabinet seat over a dispute with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland has launched her campaign to replace him as the leader of the Liberal party.

Freeland’s official campaign launch is set for Sunday in Toronto but she used social media Friday to make it clear her intention to join the race.

“I’m running to fight for Canada,” she said in a post on X.

Freeland also wrote an op-ed in the Toronto Star laying out how she would respond to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Canadian goods.

Trump has threatened to bring in a 25 per cent tariff across the board when he takes office on Monday.

Freeland proposed a dollar-for-dollar response, which she said could generate up to $150 billion in a year in revenue for the Canadian government that could be used to help people and businesses affected by U.S. tariffs.

“Florida orange growers, Michigan dishwasher manufacturers and Wisconsin dairy farmers: brace yourselves. Canada is America’s largest export market — bigger than China, Japan, the U.K. and France combined. If pushed, our response will be the single largest trade blow the U.S. economy has ever endured,” Freeland wrote.

Freeland was a key player in responding to Trump’s tariffs during his first term in the White House. As the minister of foreign affairs she oversaw a dollar-for-dollar tariff response to Trump’s imposition of import taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum in 2018.

Freeland abruptly resigned as finance minister and deputy prime minister in December, citing her disagreement with Trudeau over government spending decisions and the need to save funds to respond if Trump goes ahead with new tariffs.

“We need to take that threat extremely seriously. That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war,” she wrote in her resignation letter.

Freeland and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney are the highest-profile candidates in the race to become prime minister. 

Carney launched his campaign in Edmonton on Thursday, saying he will be “completely focused on getting our economy back on track.” 

He has also pledged to repeal the consumer carbon price if he becomes Liberal leader, and to replace it with a “comprehensive plan” that he promised to release over the next several weeks.

Carney is not a member of Parliament but could serve as prime minister without a seat in the House of Commons. On Thursday, he said he needs to become an MP but did not say where he might run.

Freeland resigned from cabinet on Dec. 16 after Trudeau told her he was replacing her as finance minister with Carney. He did not end up taking the job.

The criticism that resulted from Freeland’s resignation led Trudeau to announce on Jan. 6 that he will step down as leader when the Liberal party chooses his successor. It is set to do that on March 9. 

Government House leader Karina Gould is expected to launch her campaign in the coming days. Ottawa MP Chandra Arya has said he is running, as has former Montreal MP Frank Baylis.

Potential candidates have less than a week left to decide if they will enter the race. They have to pay $50,000 immediately and the rest of the $350,000 entrance fee by mid-February to make it onto the ballot.

A number of Liberal MPs are publicly supporting Freeland and Carney in the contest.

Freeland’s supporters include Health Minister Mark Holland, former cabinet ministers Marie-Claude Bibeau and Randy Boissonnault, Liberal MPs Ben Carr, Ken McDonald, Stéphane Lauzon, Rob Oliphant and Anthony Housefather, and former longtime Liberal MP Wayne Easter.

Housefather posted his endorsement Thursday evening, saying he trusts Freeland to manage Canada’s relationship with the United States. 

He also said he encourages candidates to drop the Liberal government’s planned changes to the capital gains inclusion rate. The policy was proposed in the last federal budget during Freeland’s tenure as finance minister, and has been the target of attacks from the federal Conservatives, who say they will repeal the policy if they take office.

Liberal MPs George Chahal, Sophie Chatel, Salma Zahid, Francesco Sorbara, Wayne Long and Patrick Weiler are among those throwing their support behind Carney.

Other caucus members, such as Immigration Minister Marc Miller, have declined to weigh in.

6) (Updated) Mark Carney launches campaign to become Liberal leader

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan, January 16, 2025

Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says he’s ready to replace Justin Trudeau and lead the Liberal party into the next election.

He made the announcement at a community centre in Edmonton Thursday afternoon, ending nearly a decade of speculation about his political ambitions.

“I’m back home in Edmonton to declare my candidacy for leader of the Liberal party and prime minister of Canada,” Carney said, flanked by supporters and Liberal members of Parliament endorsing his candidacy.

Carney grew up in Edmonton before he left to study economics at Ivy League universities abroad. He then launched a gold-plated career that saw him setting national interest rates as the head of the Bank of Canada and later the Bank of England.

Carney said he’s not an ordinary politician and these are not ordinary times. He told the crowd political and economic systems aren’t working as they should, making Canadians anxious as they fall behind economically and struggle to find doctors and afford to buy homes.

And he noted that in just a matter of days, Donald Trump will be sworn in as U.S. president as he threatens the Canadian economy.

The former central banker said that even though he’s never run for public office before, he’s ready to take on the popular Conservatives.

“I know I’m not the usual suspect when it comes to politics, but this is no time for politics as usual. No, it’s not the time for lifelong politicians such as Pierre Poilievre — politicians with bad ideas,” he said.

“Conservatives don’t run around saying Canada’s broken because they want to fix it. They want a licence to demolish and destroy.”

The Conservative party was ready for his announcement. It released a new digital ad branding him as “carbon tax Carney” just hours before the formal announcement, pointing to his history of supporting carbon pricing policies.

“Mark Carney is back from Europe to continue what Justin Trudeau started,” the ad said, arguing he would behave just like Prime Minister Trudeau in government.

Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and Liberal House leader Karina Gould are both expected to launch their own leadership bids in the coming days.

Candidates only have until Jan. 23 to declare they will run.

Liberals will elect their new leader and bring the Trudeau era to a close on March 9.