Many candidates have withdrawn from the Liberal Party leadership race and may withdraw in the future. There are several factors at work behind this, which are influencing their decisions.
After Justin Trudeau announced his resignation, the new leader of the Liberal Party will be elected on March 9. However, the new leader will not be able to serve long-term, because the opposition will bring a motion of no confidence against the government when Parliament begins on March 24. Since the Liberal Party is a minority in Parliament, their defeat in this vote of no confidence is very likely. If the Liberal Party loses the vote of no confidence, then Parliament will have to be dissolved and new elections will have to be held. Many candidates are refraining from participating in the leadership race considering the unstable political situation.
Many of the participants in the leadership race are current ministers. According to the rules, those who will ultimately participate in the leadership race must resign from their ministries. Many are not willing to leave their ministries in exchange for leading the Liberal Party for a short period. They believe that it would be more effective to retain the ministry as long as the government survives.
The new leader faces a number of challenges. US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose new tariffs on Canada and has expressed his intention to admit Canada as the 51st state of the United States. Dealing with this situation will not be easy. International and economic challenges may be faced, which may be very difficult for the new leader. For this reason, many qualified candidates are withdrawing from the leadership competition.
The fee for participating in this leadership race has been set at $ 350,000, which is higher than ever before. The fee in the last leadership competition was only $ 75,000. Although this is not the biggest reason, many candidates are not willing to spend such a large sum of money, especially when they are not guaranteed long-term leadership.
All these reasons have led many in the Liberal Party leadership race to withdraw. The unstable political environment, the potential vote of no confidence, the risk of losing the ministry and the huge fee – all of which are making the candidates make their decisions very carefully.
