Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves a news conference after announcing his resignation as Liberal leader outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Jan. 6.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that he’ll resign as Liberal Leader upon the selection of his replacement, along with his move to prorogue Parliament, give the party little time to hold a leadership vote before the expected spring election.
Many of the rules governing the leadership process have yet to be decided and will ultimately be up to the party’s president and national board.
While the Liberal Party’s constitution includes a process to elect a leader, it is silent on several key issues – namely whether ministers can remain in cabinet while campaigning for the position. The constitution also leaves some of the details – including the length of the campaign, spending limits and how votes are cast – to committees appointed by the board.
And the party has not yet said how it will deal with a three-month nomination period that would be incompatible with a short race, or a membership cut-off that would leave little time for candidates to recruit supporters.
Sachit Mehra, the party president, said in a statement Monday that he will call a meeting with the national board this week “to begin the nationwide democratic process” of electing a new leader.
Mr. Mehra, a restaurateur who was elected national party president in May, 2023, formerly held that role within the party’s Manitoba wing.
The Liberal Party’s constitution says the board must meet within 27 days of Mr. Trudeau’s announced intention to resign and set a date for a leadership vote.
Under the party constitution, candidates are required to deliver a written nomination signed by at least 300 members, including at least 100 members each from three provinces or territories. The constitution currently includes a 90-day nomination period, which would run well past Parliament’s return in late March unless it is changed.
But the constitution also says that the national board, by a two-thirds vote, can determine that “political circumstances” require it to change the date of a leadership vote and “review and alter any arrangements already made” for the contest.
The constitution says members must be registered for at least 41 days to be eligible to vote for a leader, which would cut off memberships in just a few weeks.
It says registered Liberals pay no fee, must be at least 14 years old and “ordinarily live in Canada” but do not need citizenship or permanent residency. (Citizens living abroad can also be registered Liberals.)
Members also cannot be a member of another federal party, and anyone who has donated to a national campaign is considered a “registered Liberal.”
The party uses a preferential ballot and votes are allocated on a point system. Each riding in the country is worth 100 points, and a candidate receives the number of points that correspond to their share of the vote. To win, a candidate needs more than 50 per cent of the total number of available points.
In other parties’ leadership races, it has been custom for candidates to leave prominent roles so as not to be perceived as having an advantage. Whether that is the case for this race could be up to the Prime Minister, or the party’s soon-to-be-struck committee in charge of running the leadership contest.
Speaking to CBC’s Power & Politics on Monday, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said he doesn’t think ministers can remain in cabinet and run for leader, but it’s ultimately up to Mr. Trudeau.
“Intuitively, I think they would have to leave cabinet,” he said. “I don’t know how we could get work done with someone that decided to stay. People will probably make it a political issue.”
Kevin Bosch, a former director of the Liberal research bureau who is now the managing partner at Sandstone Group, argued that a condensed leadership race is the best chance for the party to rebound post-Trudeau.
Mr. Bosch said in an interview that he believes the race will run about two months, from mid-January to mid-March, to give the new leader a couple of weeks to get their bearings before a campaign. He also said he thinks ministers will have to leave cabinet in order to run.
“They need to be out campaigning,” he said. “Also, as a candidate you want the freedom to take policy positions that are possibly not in line with the government.”
With reports from Jeff Gray