7 Liberal leadership candidates say they've submitted nomination papers as deadline passes
Candidates needed to pay $50K refundable deposit by 5 p.m. ET
Several candidates vying to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say they've submitted their paperwork and met the first financial hurdle to enter the race, although it could still take a few days to see who's made the cut.
Candidates Karina Gould, Chrystia Freeland, Mark Carney, Jaime Battiste, Chandra Arya, Frank Baylis and Ruby Dhalla all said they've sent in their nomination packages.
The leadership race is running on an extraordinary tight timeline following Trudeau's resignation announcement earlier this month and an anticipated spring election.
Under the rules set by the party, candidates had until 5 p.m. ET Thursday to submit a nomination package including the signatures of 300 registered Liberals (including at least 100 from three different provinces or territories) and a $50,000 refundable deposit.
It's a fraction of the $350,000 total entry fee. The payments are being spread over four instalments between Jan. 23 and Feb. 17.
As the race barrels toward a March 9 vote, the candidates' policies are trickling out. But no one has outlined their full platform.
On Thursday Carney, a former Bank of Canada governor, released a campaign video taking aim at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. The Opposition party has been critical of Carney for years, and has ramped up its attacks since he launched his leadership last week — suggesting he's a Liberal insider who favours unpopular and costly policies.
"You can't stand up to Trump when you're working from his playbook," said Carney in the video.
"[Poilievre] has been a politician his entire life, and in all that time, he hasn't fixed a thing. He just complains."
A source on Carney's campaign said he is meeting privately Thursday with MPs as they gather in Ottawa for a caucus meeting. The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Carney has been focused on reaching out to grassroots organizers across the country and doing rapid one- to two-minute calls with Liberals.
Carney spoke to reporters in downtown Ottawa on Thursday on his way into an event, flanked by a handful of Liberal cabinet ministers.
"We can put this economy back on track as a team," he said. "It's not just about me."
On Thursday, former finance minister Freeland promised to shake up the party's constitution and develop a process for leadership reviews — a swipe at Trudeau. The prime minister faced mounting calls from caucus to resign last year, but they were left without a mechanism to force him out.
"For me, a huge emphasis is going to be reviving the party, reviving the grassroots of the party, reviving a real democratization process of the party," she said on her way into a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.
"We can never again be in a position where the leader is the only person who decides who the leader is. And I think Liberal Party grassroots members and caucus need to have a greater say in what we do and how we do it."
A campaign source said Wednesday Freeland would scrap changes to the capital gains tax that she introduced as finance minister.
It's the second key Liberal policy Freeland has walked away from in her bid to become the next Liberal leader and prime minister. Freeland would also drop the consumer carbon tax if she wins.
Carney has appeared to have cooled on the Liberals' climate policy but has been less clear about his plans.
During his leadership launch last week, he said if the carbon price is going to go, it has to be replaced "with something that is at least, if not more, effective."
Party still has to approve candidates
Gould, the former House leader, has promised to freeze the carbon price but not abolish it.
"We have to be honest about the fact that Canadians have lost trust in our party and part of it is that I do not think that we responded to the issues that they were telling us mattered to them," she said Thursday after submitting her papers.
She suggested to reporters she would make the government's GST holiday permanent on children's clothing, diapers, strollers and car seats. Those items — and other goods and services including beer and wine and restaurant meals — are exempt from GST until Feb. 15.
She also said her government didn't get the capital gains increase "right."
A source on her campaign team said since launching her bid on the weekend, she's been reaching out to young Liberals and working to sign up new members.
Battiste also held a news conference Thursday where he announced he's submitted his papers "to be the first Indigenous person ever to run for the prime minister of Canada."
"I believe we have unfinished business for shared dreams in our country," he said while encouraging young Indigenous people to register to vote in the Liberal race.
Dhalla, a former Liberal MP who won three back-to-back elections in Brampton, Ont., announced Thursday on X that she would be running for the leadership.
Dhalla told CBC News Network's Power & Politics that she decided to join over frustrations with the way the party has gone under Trudeau.
"I think I share the anger and the frustrations of thousands of Liberals across the country, because the Liberal party of today is no longer the Liberal party as we knew it," she told host David Cochrane. Dhalla lost her seat in 2011 and has worked in the private sector ever since. She pitched herself as the candidate who has the most distance from Trudeau.
"I am the only one that has not been affiliated with the current administration. I am a fresh face and I have fresh ideas and a new vision," she said.
People can register with the party to vote in the leadership race up until Monday.
Parker Lund, a spokesperson for the Liberal Party, says the party will approve candidates "within 10 days." Elections Canada will also need to approve them, he said, which could take several days.
Lund said the party will only confirm official candidates once they have been fully approved.
Registered Liberals will vote across 343 ridings, with each riding weighted at 100 points.
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With files from Ashley Burke, Raffy Boudjikanian and Darren Major
