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Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is bowing out of the race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader — making her the second cabinet minister to choose their current job over a chance to become prime minister.
Joly said that while she's ready to become the first female leader of the Liberal party, she's not willing to leave her cabinet posting at a "crucial time" for Canada-U. S. relations.
"The reality is, I can't do both," she told reporters on Parliament Hill on Friday morning.
Joly made the comments today heading into a Canada-U. S. cabinet committee meeting called to discuss retaliatory measures Ottawa is preparing in the event incoming U.S. president Donald Trump follows through on his threat to slam Canada with stiff tariffs.
"We will be ready and I'll do my job," Joly said, adding that she will be headed back to Washington next week.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc dashed the hopes of many of his caucus supporters Wednesday by becoming the first potential cabinet aspirant to rule out a leadership bid. Judy Sgro and other Liberal MPs have asked him to change his mind, saying he would add to the race as a strong candidate.
The party leadership race is fully underway now that the party has set a date for the vote. More big-name candidates are expected to announce soon whether they intend to run or sit this one out.
Leadership hopefuls only have until Jan. 23 to declare and must pay a $350,000 fee to enter the race, which is set to conclude on March 9. Members must sign up by Jan. 27 to vote for the new leader.
That fee is steep compared to past Liberal races and could narrow the field of potential candidates. In the 2013 leadership race that Trudeau won — which had six candidates — the entrance fee was just $75,000.
In 2022, the six candidates who ran for the Conservative party leadership paid a $300,000 entrance fee.
The Liberal party has not yet announced all the rules for the leadership race, including the spending limit for candidates.
Speculation has been building for months over whether former central banker Mark Carney, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and former B.C. premier Christy Clark will throw their hats in the ring.
A host of other current cabinet ministers are also considering leadership bids, including Karina Gould, François-Philippe Champagne, Jonathan Wilkinson, Anita Anand and Steven MacKinnon.
Ontario Liberal MP Chandra Arya and former Montreal MP Frank Baylis are the only two candidates to officially declare they are in the race so far.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 10, 2025.
Comments
SNL had a skit back in early 1992, about "the race to not be the Democrat who's going to lose to George Bush", featuring all the Democratic Party leaders refusing to run.
Nobody imagined that anybody could beat GHW Bush just months after his glorious victory over Iraq, just as everybody assumes now that any Liberal will be beaten badly by Poilievre.
It is a tough choice to make knowing you will lead a party that will lose the next election, thanks to Trudeau who should have stepped aside last fall already and kept the NDP happy. The Liberals did little to challenge Pee Pee with his disinformation campaign and fake promises.
Opening caveat - I am NOT a Liberal or one who supports that party.
I am sure I'm not the only one who sees more of a parallel between the Liberals now and the Progressive Conservatives of 1993 than the Liberals at the end of either Trudeau, senior, or the Chretien/Martin periods. As the joke in late 1993 went: "The Tories are moving to a new building. It's smaller, only a two Tory building." There is the distinct possibility that they are facing that sort of implosion.
In that vein, I have taken a slightly more cynical view of the choices for the next leader. Christie Clark (aka the Duchess of Dunbar) says she has been toying with the idea of running for the position. I say she would be a good option, as it would make a fitting end - as roadkill under the Reform Party (the true identity of the mob lead by Pierre "Skippy" Poilievre) bus - other political ambitions. It would also allow a more valid potential leader to sidestep at least some of the backslplatter from the coming election.
And to think, if the outgoing PM had actually brought forward the sort of electoral reform Canadians were asking for in 2015 it would have all but cemented his party as what they have always claimed to be - the true ruling party of Canada.