N.L. Liberals confident of a contested race in search for a successor to Andrew Furey
New party leader, premier to be selected in St. John's during early May convention
While the deadline for nominations is still nearly three weeks away, those in charge of the process to find a successor for Premier Andrew Furey are confident that a contested race will take place during a Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador leadership convention in May.
"I'm pretty confident that we have a minimum of two in the race, but it could likely turn out to be four or five people," said Judy Morrow, who is chairing the party's leadership election committee.
"I have every confidence that it's going to be a contested race."
St. John's East-Quidi Vidi MHA John Abbott resigned from Andrew Furey's cabinet on Tuesday and was the first to officially declare that he will seek to become the party's next leader, and the 15th premier of the province.
It's Abbott's second bid for the party leadership. He placed second to Furey in 2020.
Windsor Lake MHA John Hogan has also sent strong signals about his political intentions. On Monday, he announced on social media that he was "stepping aside" from his role as health minister while he consulted with fellow Liberals and his family.
"I am seriously considering putting my name forward as a candidate," he wrote on Facebook.
Longtime Labrador MP Yvonne Jones announced in January that she will not be a candidate in the next federal election, but said she's being encouraged to run in the leadership race and will announce a decision on Friday.
Justice Minister Bernard Davis has also acknowledged that he's considering a leadership bid.
Nomination deadline is March 24
"We've got some wonderful, outstanding candidates coming forward. I'm expecting announcements to be made over the next few days," said Morrow, who also played leading roles in contests that saw Dwight Ball elected leader in 2013, and Furey in 2020.
The nomination deadline is Monday, March 24 at noon. Voting ends on May 2, and a winner to be declared on Saturday, May 3, during the second and final day of the leadership convention in St. John's.
The winner will later be sworn in as premier, and will have to quickly prepare for a provincial general election, which must be held before mid-October.
The party will use a one-person, one-vote system, and voters will select their choices in order of preference on a ranked ballot. Each of the 40 districts will be allocated 1,000 points per count, with a candidate being awarded a number of points commensurate with the percentage of first preference votes.
For example, if a candidate receives 15 per cent of the first preference ballots in a district on the first count, the candidate earns 150 points for that district.
If a candidate receives 20,001 points or more on the first count, or 50 per cent plus one of the points, they will be declared party leader.
If a candidate does not receive a majority of points on the first count, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be excluded and a second count will take place.
A higher nomination fee
Candidates will be required to pay a $50,000 nomination fee, and their nomination papers must include the names of at least 50 registered Liberals representing at least 10 electoral districts. The candidates will also be required to share in the cost of the electronic voting system, which allows vetted Liberals who possess a unique personal identification number to cast their ballot either electronically or by telephone.
During the 2020 leadership contest, Furey and Abbott each paid a $25,000 nomination fee, plus an extra "assessment fee" of $8,000, said Morrow.
Organizers expect that as many of 40,000 Liberals may be eligible to vote in the leadership contest.
"The bulk of the cost of running one of these leadership elections is the voting process," said Morrow. "When you get up to 40,000 people signing up and we're paying per vote, it becomes very costly. We're hoping we won't have to do an additional assessment like we did the last time."
Liberals who have signed up to be party members between Jan. 1, 2024 and the end of this month will be eligible to vote in the leadership election.
"There's no fee. There's no cost to anybody signing up," said Morrow.
"The name of the game on this is to sign up as many registered Liberals to become eligible to vote as you possibly can in each of the districts, and reach out to the grassroots of the party."
A campaign spending limit
For the first time, meanwhile, candidates will have a campaign spending limit: $200,000.
"We just felt that we didn't want the candidates out there spending an exorbitant amount of money," said Morrow.
When asked whether the candidates will be required to publicly disclose the source of their campaign finances, Morrow said that will be discussed at a committee meeting this week.
But she emphasized that the leadership race is an "internal party process."
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