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The Liberal Party of Canada will announce its new leader and the next prime minister at an event in Ottawa today. The event begins at 5 p.m. and the Liberal leader who will succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be announce by 7 p.m. Join National Post’s managing editor of comment, Carson Jerema, and columnists Terry Newman and Jerry Sarkonak starting at 4 p.m. for live news and analysis from the Liberal party event as Canada learns its next prime minister.
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Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who raised millions of dollars more than his opponents, is the presumed front runner. Former deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland, whose resignation from cabinet sparked Trudeau’s decision to step down is also running. The other two candidates are former government House leader Karina Gould and Montreal businessman and former MP Frank Baylis.
The 400,000 Liberal members have until 3 p.m. ET to cast their ballot. As of Friday, more than 125,000 Liberal members had cast their ballot — already beating the number of votes cast in the 2013 leadership race that saw Trudeau elected as leader. It is a preferential ballot, which means that voters will rank the candidates in order of preference. If Carney were to obtain less than 50 per cent of voters’ first choices at the first round, the candidate who obtained the lowest number of first choices would be eliminated, and that person’s second choices would be distributed to other candidates. That process would continue until a candidate obtains a majority of the votes.
Trudeau is attending the event and will deliver a speech before the new leader is announced. After Trudeau, Jean Chrétien will speak, followed by the newly announced leader of the Liberal party at about 7 p.m. Trudeau and the new leader will decide when to transfer power and then an election could be called within weeks.
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