‘I have worked hard at improving my French but it’s not where it needs to be, today,’ Clark wrote
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OTTAWA — Former B.C. premier Christy Clark announced to supporters Tuesday morning that she won’t run in the Liberal leadership race.
In an email sent to supporters, Clark wrote that despite the fact she has been able to assemble a team of “hundreds” of organizers from across the country, she has “made the difficult decision to step back.” She broke the news to them over a Zoom call with about 40 organizers roughly 20 minutes before the news went public.
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“We have come a long way, in a short time, there is simply not enough time to mount a successful campaign and for me to effectively connect with Francophone Canadians in their language,” Clark wrote.
“I have worked hard at improving my French but it’s not where it needs to be, today.”
Clark’s decision comes after she claimed to have misspoken to CBC’s radio show The House when she repeatedly denied ever having been a member of the federal Conservative party and voting in its 2022 leadership race, despite having declared so in previous speeches and media interviews.
Clark didn’t mention the CBC interview in her email to supporters and instead pointed to the short time frame Prime Minister Justin Trudeau left for prospective contenders, after he announced he was stepping down on Jan. 6.
“The timing of the prime minister’s resignation just did not leave enough time for the party to build a process that will renew and grow our party,” said Clark. “Our party must still find a way to generate new momentum and energy. To open itself up to a broader group of Canadians who have felt left out, but who can’t abide the snarling, sneering politics of (Conservative Leader) Pierre Poilievre or the unrealistic approach of the NDP.”
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The former B.C. premier had spent months laying the groundwork for a potential leadership, including by travelling to Quebec to learn French. As late as Sunday evening, she was emailing the more than “250” people who she says had volunteered to organize her campaign, saying the Liberals needed to square their focus on “Paycheques. Jobs. The cost of groceries. Gas.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a source close to Government House Leader Karina Gould said she plans to launch her campaign to become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada this week.
Prospective candidates have until Jan. 23 to register to run and until Jan. 27 to sign up new members.
The tight constraints of the race, which includes the requirement to fundraise $350,000, has meant other potential successors to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have bowed out of the contest, which was triggered by the prime minister’s resignation on Jan. 6
Gould, who was first elected when the party came to power back in 2015, would be the youngest candidate in the race and the only millennial. Other expected contenders include former Bank of Canada and Bank governor Mark Carney, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland.
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She currently serves as the government’s House Leader in the House of Commons and before that was the minister responsible for shepherding the signing of national child care deals with provinces and territories, which was a signature policy of the Trudeau government.
She is also Jewish and has two young children.
National Post
staylor@postmedia.com
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