In 2013, the Liberal Party of Canada held a leadership election to elect a new party leader. The election was triggered by Michael Ignatieff's announcement, on May 3, 2011, of his intention to resign as leader following the party's defeat in the 2011 federal election. On May 25, 2011, Bob Rae was appointed by Liberal caucus as interim leader. The party announced Justin Trudeau as its new leader on April 14, 2013, in Ottawa, Ontario.
Justin Trudeau would go on to become the 23rd prime minister of Canada in the 2015 Canadian federal election in which the Liberal Party won 184 seats, an increase of 150 seats from 34 seats in the 2011 election, the largest-ever numerical increase by a party in a Canadian election.
Leadership election timing
Michael Ignatieff declared on May 3, 2011, that he intended to resign as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, but his statement was worded so as not to be an actual resignation to avoid immediately triggering a leadership vote under party rules; he tendered a letter of resignation to the party's National Board of Directors on May 11. Under the provisions of the party's constitution, the Board was required to set a date for a leadership vote to be held within five months thereafter. However several MPs expressed their reluctance to hold a third leadership election in eight years and instead wanted to take the four years of electoral stability provided by a majority parliament as an opportunity to rebuild under an interim leader for as much as two years before selecting a permanent leader.
The Board met as required on May 19 and set the election for October 28 and 29, 2011, but adopted a proposed constitutional amendment allowing this leadership election to be held between March 1 and June 30, 2013, with the exact date to be announced no sooner than five months in advance. The next convention of the party adopted the amendment on June 18, 2011. On June 13, 2012, the Board decided to call the leadership vote for April 2013 with a specific date to be confirmed during the summer. The Board subsequently established April 14, 2013, as the date the leadership election winner is to be announced and November 14, 2012, as the official start of the race. It also set a spending limit of $950,000 and a debt limit of $75,000, both considerably lower figures than allowed in 2006.
Interim leader
In the case of a vacancy in the leadership, the Board is required to meet to appoint an interim leader "in consultation" with the parliamentary caucus, i.e., its 34 MPs and 46 senators. Before this meeting, the Board determined it would not consider anyone unless that person has the support of a majority of MPs and of the caucus as a whole, was bilingual, and promised in writing not to seek the permanent leadership and not to discuss or negotiate significant changes to the party, which would include a merger with the New Democratic Party (NDP). This was taken as intended to exclude Bob Rae a potential leadership candidate who had significant support among Liberal senators and had talked about a merger shortly after the general election loss, as well as Deputy Leader Ralph Goodale, who is not bilingual, and any other MP who may intend to run in the leadership campaign. Nonetheless, after the caucus discussed the interim leadership on May 11, 2011, it met again on May 25 and voted to recommend Rae as interim leader over Marc Garneau; the Board subsequently confirmed the appointment. Rumoured candidates who did not run for interim leader included Goodale, Carolyn Bennett, Scott Brison, and John McCallum.
In June 2012, the Board was expected to release Rae from his promise and allow him to run for the party leadership provided he stepped down as interim leader when Parliament rose for the summer. However, Rae announced on June 13, 2012, that he would not be running for the permanent leadership and remained interim leader until Trudeau was announced as the new leader April 14, 2013.
Process
130,774 Liberal Party members and supporters registered to vote in the election of almost 300,000 who were eligible. General voting took place from April 7 to April 14, 2013, by preferential ballot (instant-runoff voting) online and by phone. Each electoral district was allocated 100 points with points in a district allocated in proportion to each candidate by the number of first preference votes received. All points were then aggregated nationally for a "national count". If no candidate received 15,401 points on the first count, then the candidate with the fewest points would be eliminated and his/her votes are distributed in each electoral district among the remaining leadership contestants according to the next preference indicated. This process would then continue until one candidate has more than 15,401 points. Trudeau was selected on the first ballot.
Timeline
2011
- May 2 – Federal election reduces the Liberal Party to 34 seats in the House of Commons, third place behind the Conservative Party and the NDP.
- May 3 – Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff informs a press conference that he does not intend to continue as party leader.
- May 9 – Liberal Party National Board of Directors sets rules that the party's interim leader had to be bilingual and agree not to run as permanent leader or to pursue any merger talks with the NDP.
- May 11 – Ignatieff formally tenders his resignation in a letter to the Liberal Party's National Board of Directors.
- May 25 – Liberal caucus votes to recommend Bob Rae over Marc Garneau as interim leader; Rae's election as interim leader confirmed by the National Board.
- June 18 – An extraordinary convention of the party is held via conference call in which the party's constitution is amended to allow the leadership election to be delayed from the fall of 2011 to between March 1 and June 30, 2013.
2012
- January 14 – Liberal biennial convention adopts proposal for a new "supporter" class of non-members who will join members in the right to elect the new leader.
- April 21 – Liberal National Board of Directors meets to discuss rules for the leadership election; most decisions are deferred until a subsequent meeting to be held in June.
- May 2 – Liberal Party opens the "supporter" category of party affiliation allowing Canadians who are not paid members or members of another political party to vote for the Liberal leadership after affirming that they "support the Liberal Party of Canada".
- June 13 – Liberal National Board met to clarify rules for the leadership election, including whether or not the interim leader is eligible to run. The Board decided that the leadership election will be held April 2013 with a specific date to be confirmed during the summer. Hours prior to the meeting, Rae announces he will not be a candidate in the leadership election.
- June 27 – Deborah Coyne begins her campaign.
- September 6 – Party announces that the winner of the election will be made public on April 14, 2013, in Ottawa, Ontario. Additionally, the party sets an entrance fee of $75,000 ($25,000 when the candidate registers and two further installments of $25,000) and a spending limit of $950,000. Candidates may not accumulate more than $75,000 of debt.
- October 2 – Justin Trudeau begins his campaign.
- November 7 – David Bertschi begins his campaign.
- November 14 –
- Official start to the leadership race.
- Martha Hall Findlay and Karen McCrimmon begin their campaigns.
- November 26 – Joyce Murray begins her campaign.
- November 28 – Marc Garneau begins his campaign.
- November 29 – George Takach begins his campaign.
- December 15 – Deadline for registered candidates to have paid at least $50,000 of the $75,000 entry fee.
2013
- January 13 – Martin Cauchon begins his campaign.
- January 14 – Deadline for candidates to file a nomination form signed by at least 300 members of the party, including at least 100 members from each of three different provinces or territories, and to have paid the final installment of the $75,000 registration fee.
- January 20 – Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Debate in Vancouver, British Columbia.
- February 2 – Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Debate in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
- February 16 – Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Debate in Mississauga, Ontario.
- February 25 – Takach withdraws from the race.
- March 3, 2013 –
- Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Debate in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- Last day to become a member or supporter of the Liberal Party to be entitled to vote for the leader.
- March 13, – Garneau withdraws from the race citing his ranking in a March 7 robocall poll which, on March 14, his team admitted did not comply with CRTC rules.
- March 21 – Deadline for members and supporters to register to vote (extended from March 14, 2013).
- March 21 – Bertschi withdraws from the race.
- March 23 – Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Debate in Montreal, Quebec.
- April 6 – Liberal Party of Canada Leadership National Showcase in Toronto, Ontario. Voting begins using preferential ballot.
- April 14 –
- 3:00 p.m. ET (UTC−4); Voting ends.
- 5:00–7:00 p.m. ET; Result announcement in the Confederation Ballroom at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa.
Candidates
Candidates on the ballot are listed below.
Martin Cauchon
Martin Cauchon, 49, was the MP for Outremont from 1993 to 2004 and served in the cabinet of Jean Chrétien as Minister of Justice from 2002 to 2003. Cauchon was the Liberal candidate in Outremont in the 2011 federal election but was defeated by New Democrat Tom Mulcair.
Deborah Coyne
Deborah Coyne, 58, was a Toronto lawyer, professor, author and Liberal candidate for Toronto—Danforth in the 2006 federal election. She worked in the Prime Minister's Office in the 1980s and between 1989 and 1991 she was a constitutional adviser to Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells.
- Coyne released a significant number of policy ideas on her website the day she announced her bid. Among the proposal outlined on her website were; the implementation of a carbon tax, allowing a mix of public and private health care to meet national health care standards, reforming the electoral system, reassessing supply management of dairy products, eliminating tax credits to simplify the tax system, abolishing the Indian Act, and replacing sporadic first ministers meetings with a formal council of Canadian governments.
Martha Hall Findlay
Martha Hall Findlay, 53, was MP for Willowdale from 2008 to 2011. She was opposition critic for transport, infrastructure and communities (2008–2009), public works (2009–2010) and international trade (2010–2011). She ran in the 2006 leadership election, where she placed last.
Date campaign launched: November 14, 2012
Campaign website: www.marthahallfindlay.ca
Endorsements of Martha Hall Findlay
- Past MPs: John Herron, Fundy Royal
- Provincial politicians: (4) James Doyle NB former MLA Miramichi-Bay du Vin; Kent Hehr AB MLA for Calgary-Buffalo; Aldéa Landry former Deputy Premier of New Brunswick; Weslyn Mather, AB former MLA for Edmonton-Mill Woods;
- Other prominent individuals: (2) Norrie McCain, former Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick; Jonathan Mousley, withdrawn leadership candidate, author Nanda Lwin
- As Executive Fellow with the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, Hall Findlay released a paper calling for the abolition of supply management in Canada's agriculture sector. With the launch of her leadership campaign she announced that she would release policy planks every few weeks. Her first policy proposal called for a national energy strategy for energy infrastructure.
Karen McCrimmon
Karen McCrimmon is a retired Canadian Forces Lieutenant colonel who was the first woman to command a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron (429 Transport Squadron). She was the Liberal candidate in Carleton—Mississippi Mills during the 2011 election. McCrimmon served in the Gulf War, with NATO forces during the Yugoslav Wars, and the War in Afghanistan, and in 1995 was admitted to the Order of Military Merit in the rank of Officer.
Joyce Murray
Joyce Murray, 58, has been the Liberal MP for Vancouver Quadra since 2008 and served as Opposition Critic for Small Business and Tourism, Asia — Pacific Gateway and Western Economic Diversification (2011–2015). BC Liberal MLA for New Westminster (2001–2005). BC Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection (2001–2004). BC Minister of Management Services (2004–2005)
Endorsements of Joyce Murray