OTTAWA — Liberal MPs are gathering on Parliament Hill this afternoon to huddle after the party chose former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney as its new leader.
Carney is heading into a day full of briefings and in the coming days will need to be sworn in as prime minister, choose his cabinet and sort out his party's battle plans for the coming federal election — but the exact timeline for all these things remains unclear.
An early election call is widely expected within days or weeks of Carney being installed as prime minister, as the Liberal party looks to take advantage of the polling momentum it has enjoyed in recent weeks.
Like Justin Trudeau before him and even Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Carney won a resounding mandate from the party base — ultimately capturing 86 per cent of the vote.
Carney's main rival Chrystia Freeland came in a distant second and said after the event that she always knew it would be an uphill battle, since the party establishment rallied around Carney's candidacy.
A breakdown of the leadership vote results released by the Liberal party shows that Carney beat his rivals in their own ridings — by wide margins.
Freeland won 188 votes in her riding of University—Rosedale — Carney netted 1,322 votes there — while Gould won 190 votes to Carney's 818 in her Burlington riding.
Frank Baylis, who came in fourth, came the closest to Carney on his home turf, taking 130 votes in his former riding of Pierrefonds—Dollard to Carney's 247.
Carney swept every single riding across the country through the points-based system, taking in a total of 29,456 points. Each riding was worth 100 points and Carney scored higher than 60 points in each one.
A big part of Freeland's strategy throughout the race was to reach out to Liberal members in rural ridings not currently held by the Liberal party. The strategy failed; she won only 2,728 points.
Freeland's highest individual point score for an electoral district was the 25 points she took in the rural Quebec riding of Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach — Nitassinan, currently held by the Bloc Québécois.
Carney led in caucus and cabinet endorsements throughout the race, but many Liberals also endorsed Freeland — including Justice Minister Arif Virani, Health Minister Mark Holland and Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier, and MPs such as Ben Carr, Anthony Housefather and Marie-Claude Bibeau.
The Conservatives slammed the result as a coronation and Poilievre called it a "sneaky" move for the Liberals to swap Trudeau with Carney in an attempt to win a fourth mandate.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2025.
Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press
