Christy Clark and François-Philippe Champagne announced Tuesday that they will not enter the race to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
These announcements come alongside the news that Liberals Chrystia Freeland, Karina Gould and Mark Carney are expected to announce their plans to run for the leadership within a week.
Clark ’emotional’ on team call
Sources told CTV News that Clark, the former premier of British Columbia and the first woman elected to that position, was “excited” to tell her core team of her decision in a conference call.
“I have made the difficult decision to step back,” Clark wrote in an email to his followers.
“While we have come a long way, in a short time, there is simply not enough time to mount a successful campaign and to effectively connect with French-speaking Canadians in their language,” he also wrote. “I have worked hard to improve my French, but today it is not where it should be.”
Clark told her team she would not run because other teams had more than a year to organize and she did not see a path for herself, facing a shorter period to organize and campaign.
Clark had expressed interest in running for the leadership, but has faced criticism for retracting claims about whether or not he joined the Conservative Party three years ago to vote in its leadership race.
His decision not to run comes after he denied in an interview with CBC News last week that he had joined the Conservative Party in 2022 to back former Quebec Premier Jean Charest in that party’s leadership race. .
“I never got a membership and I never got a ticket,” Clark claimed in the interview, before challenging Conservatives to produce evidence of their party membership and ticket.
Shortly after, Jenni Bryne, a top adviser to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, posted a screenshot on social media that appeared to show that Clark was a member of the PCC from June 2, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
“Well, I was wrong,” Clark wrote in a social media post after the interview. “Shit happens. Lessons learned.”
“I have always been clear that I supported Jean Charest to stop Pierre Poilievre,” he also wrote. “I’m not going to back down from that. He’s the most divisive politician we’ve seen in years and I felt it was my duty as a (Canadian) to stop him in his tracks.”
Sources who were on the call with Clark and her core team on Tuesday insist the former prime minister did not raise the controversy over PCC membership as a reason she decided not to run for the Liberal leadership.
Champagne also announces that he will not appear
Industry Minister Champagne announced Tuesday, in a speech at the Canadian Club in Toronto, that he has no intention of running.
“I will dedicate my energy to defending Canada, Canadians, Canadian companies,” said Champagne, in the middle of a conversation with journalist Amanda Lang focused on emerging technologies, supply chains, critical minerals and the relationships between Canada and the United States.
“It was probably one of the hardest decisions of my life, but I think it’s the right one at the right time,” he also said.
Champagne also said he plans to attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week, as the soon-to-be commander-in-chief’s threat to impose blanket 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian imports continues to loom large.
Champagne was first elected in 2015 and named to the cabinet two years later.
He has held several cabinet positions and, as Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry since 2021, has been a key member of Trudeau’s economic team.
Gould to launch campaign this week: source
Meanwhile, Government House Leader Gould is expected to launch her bid for Liberal leader this week, a source told CTV News.
He wants to run a campaign focused on affordability and younger Canadians, according to a source close to his campaign.
Gould, who was first elected in 2015 as MP for Burlington, has headed several cabinet portfolios since then. In 2018, she made history as the first cabinet minister to take maternity leave.
Before being elected, Gould worked as a trade and investment specialist for the Mexican Trade Commission in Toronto and as a consultant in the United States. He has a master’s degree from the University of Oxford in England.
Who else is running?
He will join backbenchers Jaime Battiste and Chandra Arya and former MP Frank Baylis on the list of contenders who have officially announced their intention to run.
Freeland, Canada’s former finance minister and deputy prime minister who resigned from Trudeau’s cabinet in a shock resignation letter last month, will also announce her leadership bid within the week, sources close to her told CTV News.
Those sources say Freeland will make her announcement “close” to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration day, along with her first dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs and policy plan.
Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, will also announce a candidacy, with dozens of MPs lined up to support him, according to a source close to him.
Two sources told CTV News that the former central banker is expected to begin his campaign in Edmonton, his hometown.
With files from Mike Le Couteur, Rachel Aiello, Brennan MacDonald and Vassy Kapelos of CTV News
