Home Election Tracker Liberal Party of Canada Liberal leadership race down to four candidates

Liberal leadership race down to four candidates

Leadership candidate Ruby Dhalla has been disqualified.

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Island Social Trends
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liberal leadership candidates, bayliss, carney, freeland, gould
Four Liberal Leadership candidates as of Feb 21, 2025 (from left): Frank Bayliss, Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland, and Karina Gould. [IST composite]
CANADA – FEDERAL ELECTION NEWS 2025

Friday February 21, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS [Posted from VICTORIA, BC] [Posted at 3:23 pm | updated February 23, 2025]

by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends

This afternoon at 3:20 pm (Pacific) the Liberal Party of Canada issued a news release announcing that one of the five leadership candidates — Ruby Dhalla — has been disqualified.

Dhalla said on CBC this afternoon that she feels “there was some sort of threat” perceived by her in the race, and that the perceived front runner Mark Carney is favoured by the party to win.

ruby dhalla
Now former leadership candidate Ruby Dhalla.

She claims that she was seen as ‘neck in neck’ with Carney even though all polls so have far shown experienced cabinet ministers Chrystiua Freeland and Karina Gould are seen as more firmly in the race.

Debates:

Dhalla is not fluent in French (though she speaks four other language) and would have struggled considerably in the upcoming leaders debate in French, scheduled for February 24 starting at 8 pm Eastern (5 pm Pacific).

The English debate is scheduled for February 25 starting at 8 pm Eastern (5 pm Pacific).

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Four candidates in the race:

There are now four candidates in the Liberal Party of Canada leadership race, with a vote by Liberal members coming up March 9: Frank Bayliss, Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland, and Karina Gould.

liberal leadership candidates, bayliss, carney, freeland, gould
Four Liberal Leadership candidates as of Feb 21, 2025 (from left): Frank Baylis, Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland, and Karina Gould. [IST composite]
  • Mark Carney: Carney is considered to be the front runner in this leadership race. The highlight of his track record is high-level performance in the economic sector (including Bank of Canada governor and then governor of the Bank of England). In this campaign he is playing up hishometown roots in the Northwest Territories and Edmonton. He’s been endorsed by 83 Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers. Carney has never been a politician nor elected to any political office.
  • Chrystia Freeland: Until mid-December was Trudeau’s finance minister and deputy prime minister, resigning in a way that brought Trudeau’s career to an abrupt end. She was for a time, a journalist in the United States. First elected in 2013. Freeland was in cabinet from 2015 to 2024, including as foreign affairs minister during which time she helped ratify a renegotiated free trade deal (CUSMA, formerly NAFTA) with the United States and Mexico during Trump’s first presidency. In part, her campaign seems to take aim at mainstream Liberals. She’s been endorsed by 26 Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers.
  • Karina Gould: She is the youngest woman to serve as a federal cabinet minister. In 2015 at age 28 she entered politics, and was first appointed to Trudeau’s cabinet in 2017 as minister of Democratic Institutions. Gould has most recently been government House Leader; she is currently not in cabinet during this leadership race. She has gained some traction by aiming her campaign at young adult voters.
  • Frank Baylis: A businessman and engineer from Montreal, Bayliss was a Quebec MP from 2015 to 2019. He helped found the party’s Black Caucus. Bayliss has an engineering background. He grew his family’s medical manufacturing business into a global success (the company was sold to an American company in 2021 for $1.75 billion USD).

Who chooses:

Nearly 400,000 registered members of the Liberal party have signed up to vote in the 2025 Liberal leadership process.

As soon as a new Liberal leader is chosen, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will step down, as he announced on January 6.

So this is a matter of about one percent of Canada’s population choosing the next prime minister — at least for a short time, but possibly positioning that person for the next round for a longer stint in the top job.

Statement by the Liberal Party of Canada’s National Director Azam Ishmael on Ruby Dhalla’s candidacy for Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada:

“Today the Liberal Leadership Vote Committee unanimously made the decision to disqualify Ruby Dhalla from the 2025 Liberal Leadership race. The decision followed an extensive process and review, including interviews, questionnaires, and an opportunity for Dr. Dhalla to directly address the committees.

“After a thorough investigation, the Leadership Vote Committee and the Leadership Expense Committee, sitting jointly, unanimously determined that Dr. Dhalla was in breach of 10 violations of the National Leadership Rules, Leadership Vote Rules, and the Leadership Expense Rules. The violations include concerns about alleged violations of the Canada Elections Act, certain other election finance matters, non-disclosure of material facts, and inaccurate financial reporting.

“The Leadership Vote Committee determined that the violations were extremely serious, accepted the recommendation of the Chief Electoral Officer and disqualified Dr. Dhalla under section 8(i) of the National Leadership Rules.”

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Political and socioeocnomic news analysis at IslandSocialTrends.ca .

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