Wednesday May 21, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Boasting that the Liberal Party of Canada saw the party’s largest vote share in nearly 50 years, the party’s national board of directors credited their leader Mark Carney for that success in their announcement about their next national convention.
The next Liberal national convention will be held April 9 to 11, 2026 in Montreal.
The 2025 convention was held in Ottawa earlier this year, as was the 2023 convention.
Liberal locations:
The national party says Montreal is “an inspiring, dynamic setting” which no one doubts.
Yesterday Carney hosted a cabinet retreat at Wilson House at Meech Lake in Chelsea, Quebec just north of Ottawa.
Of course, speaking from Ottawa carries its own form of clout. To people who live there, Ottawa is their home town. To the rest of the country Ottawa rings loud as the seat of federal power.
This choosing of location (by the party for the convention perhaps, but likely to suit the prime minister) seems to align with Carney’s desire for efficiency and possibly a desire to limit his own travel time through the inconvenience of travelling longer distances. And many of his top cabinet ministers live in the Toronto/Ottawa/Montreal region.
Though to be fair, as Carney gets down to serious business with his cabinet the consideration of locations with easier security requirements is probably part of the decision-making
Coastal feelings:
To those of us here on the west coast in BC (and possibly to folks in other provinces west of Ontario) there is a feeling of Ottawa/Montreal centralization creeping into the sense of national footprint. What feels like a return to centralization around the Ottawa/Montreal nexus of federal Liberal power is something Carney may want to pay heed.
Perhaps there is an element of frugality for holding large gatherings in the Ottawa/Montreal scope of things, as the majority of Liberal MPs are located east of Winnipeg. But politically, Carney may wish to assess the political impacts of location selection.
Carney will soon meet with Canada’s premiers in Saskatoon on June 2 and the G7 summit for international leaders will be held in Alberta on June 15 to 17. This shows the federal government’s scope for choice of location. But when it comes to being Liberals, it still feels like the rest of Canada’s regions beyond Ottawa/Montreal are outside of the core.
Showcasing Canada:
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau did seem to make an effort to host cabinet retreats at various locations across the country.
It was a way of acknowledging the broader scope of Canada’s politics and geography while showcasing this amazing country to not only Canadians watching via TV media coverage but also for the cabinet ministers themselves to become acquainted with different parts of this vast country.
Political sensiibility:
Undoubtedly Carney will get out and about across Canada during his tenure as prime minister.
But holing the next Liberal national convention in Montreal is already another example of putting a business-like mindset ahead of political sensibility. Unless of course there was reason to give a nod to Quebec for the support Liberals received there during the 2025 election campaign.
The first example was at first justifying that Canadians should wait until spring 2026 for the next federal budget before hearing loudly that a budget should come sooner than a year after becoming prime minister — while in Rome on the weekend Carney announced that his first full federal budget will come in Fall of this year. There was a 2024 fall economic statement but delivery of that ignited the crash of the Trudeau era.
Vancouver Island landing zone:
Carney visited Victoria three times during the April 2025 federal campaign. He was heard each time (sometimes before the official cameras were rolling) saying how much he likes the weather here with a revelation of genuine expression.
Especially now that the prime minister has two Liberals elected on Vancouver Island we may expect to see him jaunt this far west-of-centre more often than might be required. Visits to Alberta probably wouldn’t hurt either, given the current swirl of separation sentiment in that province.
The two Liberals elected on Vancouver Island in the April 28, 2025 election are Stephanie McLean (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke) and Will Greaves (Victoria). McLean is already in cabinet, as a secretary of state (aka junior cabinet minister). Greaves could very likely also be in cabinet sooner than later given his expertise in matters related to the Arctic.
===== RELATED:
- Carney’s Liberal government to deliver first budget in Fall 2025 (May 18, 2025)
- Carney’s second visit to Victoria highlights south Vancouver Island Liberal candidates (April 23, 2025)
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