By David Ljunggren
(Reuters) -Canada’s ruling Liberal Party is looking for a new leader to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced on Jan. 6 he intended to step down.
The Liberal Party will pick a new chief on March 9.
On Tuesday, Federal Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced he would not run.
Here are some of the remaining top potential contenders.
FORMER FINANCE MINISTER CHRYSTIA FREELAND
Freeland, 56, was one of Trudeau’s closest allies during his nine years in power and had been serving as finance minister. Freeland unexpectedly resigned in December after an argument over spending and penned a letter attacking the prime minister’s leadership and his love of “political gimmicks.”
Freeland, the most high-profile member of the government after Trudeau, had been finance minister since August 2020 and helped craft the government’s multi-billion-dollar social spending program to help fight the pandemic.
She had previously been foreign minister and led the Canadian team that successfully renegotiated a trilateral trade deal with the United States and Mexico after then-President Donald Trump threatened to tear up the agreement.
She joined the government in November 2015, first serving as trade minister. Before entering politics in 2013, Freeland worked as a journalist and in senior editorial roles with several media companies, including the Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, and Reuters, where she worked from 2010 to 2013. She has written two books.
FORMER BANK OF CANADA GOVERNOR MARK CARNEY
Carney, 59, is the only major candidate who is not part of the Trudeau government. Carney’s name has been circulating for years as a potential Liberal leader, largely thanks to his financial credentials. Carney said in a statement on Monday that he would be considering whether to run over the next few days.
He worked for Goldman Sachs before joining the Canadian finance ministry in 2004. He was named Bank of Canada governor in 2007 and quickly had to deal with the after-effects of the global crisis in 2008. In 2013 he took over as governor of the Bank of England, becoming the first person to ever head two major central banks.
Carney forecast the economic damage that would result if Britain left the European Union, prompting attacks from pro-Brexit advocates. After leaving the bank in 2020, he was appointed United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance. He is currently vice chairman at Brookfield Asset Management.
NATURAL RESOURCES MINISTER JONATHAN WILKINSON
Wilkinson, 59, a former businessman who spent years working for green technology companies, served as environment minister from 2019-2021 before taking up his current role. Wilkinson has had to strike a balance between acting as a defender for the sector while also working in a government that wants to cut oil and gas sector emissions. He also pushed to ease the permitting process for mining companies so that it does not take several years to get a new project off the ground.
HOUSE LEADER KARINA GOULD
Gould, 37, is seeking to become the first female leader of the Liberal Party. She entered parliament in 2015 and was named minister of democratic institutions in January 2017, becoming the youngest-ever female cabinet minister at the age of 29. Although she pushed through some voting reforms, her ministry was dissolved after the 2019 election and she took over the relatively low-key foreign aid ministry. She also became the first federal cabinet minister to take a maternity leave after giving birth in 2018. She became minister of families in 2021 and in 2023 was named the Liberals’ House of Commons leader.
OTHER CONTENDERS
Three other people have announced they intend to take part but they have little chance of winning. They are backbench legislators Chandra Arya and Jaime Battiste as well as former member of parliament Frank Baylis.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Ed White; Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Deepa Babington, Lisa Shumaker and Rod Nickel)
