The Liberal Party will elect its new leader. Who gets to vote?

Justin Trudeau’s days as leader of the Liberal Party are numbered after he announced plans to resign once the party elects his successor.

But how does the selection process work in the Liberal Party? And who gets to choose the next leader?

Outside his residence in Ottawa, Trudeau told reporters on Monday of his intention to step down following months of mounting pressure.

“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau said he had informed the Liberal Party president on Sunday evening.

The Liberal Party’s board of directors must now set a date for the next leadership election and establish the leadership expenses committee, according to the party’s constitution.

Trudeau’s election to the party’s leadership in 2013 followed a change in the voting mechanism that gave a new category of non-member “supporters” the same say in choosing a leader as those who pay to become members.

“At that time, for the first time by a federal party in Canadian history, they allowed anybody in Canada (to vote),” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto.

“You didn’t even have to be voting age. If you were 14 years old, you could vote for the leader of the Liberal Party. You didn’t have to even be a member of the party.”

The Liberal leadership vote will be the first major party leadership race since the establishment of the foreign interference commission’s inquiry and has raised questions in recent days about whether the process could be vulnerable to foreign interference.

That new Liberal leader will become prime minister for as long as the party remains the current government, and would lead the party into the next election.

The inquiry was first established in September 2023 after a series of reports by Global News and the Globe and Mail exposed alleged attempts at meddling by foreign actors like China in recent federal elections, and raised questions about the government’s response.

A spokesperson for Elections Canada told Global News, “The CEO (of Elections Canada) has been clear about his position that it is important that parties maintain control over the way run their internal affairs, including choosing their leaders and candidates.”

Leadership races in recent years have come under scrutiny over questions about foreign interference. A report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) last March said nomination processes and leadership races are especially vulnerable to foreign interference in Canada.

“Unlike Australia and the United Kingdom, Canada does not criminalize interfering in nominations, leadership races, or any other political party process,” the report said.

The report said foreign actors have tried to target leadership races in the past, and “allegedly interfered in the leadership races of the Conservative Party of Canada.”

Dennis Molinaro, a professor at Ontario Tech University and former security analyst with the government of Canada, said that “leadership races are extremely vulnerable to foreign interference attempts, especially as these rules for the leadership contest are currently set by the political parties themselves.”

He said the Liberal Party’s mechanism to elect a leader was “terrible” since it left the door open for foreign agents who might try to influence the leadership race with the least resistance.

“You don’t have to be a citizen in the Conservative or NDP nomination races either, but at the very least you have your permanent resident status, which is a pathway to citizenship,” he said.

He said the voting rules in the Liberal Party’s case are unclear, such as a lack of clarity on what the requirement for someone to “ordinarily reside in Canada” means.

“It opens up the door to have foreign threat actors essentially flood the nomination process with supporters that try to determine a candidate. And in this case, we’re talking about potentially the next prime minister of Canada, at least for a short period of time and potentially after that,” he said.

Molinaro said that, at the very least, the Liberals should raise the voting age in their leadership election or make their mechanism comparable to the other two major federal parties.

In September 2024, Elections Canada said it would recommend tighter rules for political parties’ nominations. This would extend to leadership contests.

Stéphane Perrault, Canada’s chief electoral officer, told the foreign interference commission that Elections Canada “does not have the local structures or resources to engage in the ongoing type of operations that would be required to administer nomination and leadership contests across the country.”

According to the constitution of the Liberal Party, registered Liberals who have been in the party for at least 41 days before the day of the election have the right to vote for the next leader, though anyone can become a registered Liberal and they do not need to pay membership fees.

They may vote by a preferential ballot on which the voter indicates their preference for leadership contestants.

Campaigns are meant to be 90 days long but can be tightened, the constitution says.

In his resignation speech, Trudeau called for the selection of the next Liberal leader “through a robust nationwide competitive process.”  However, not all Liberals think that might be the best way to select the leader, given that Parliament is set to resume in March.

Eddie Goldenberg, former chief of staff to Jean Chrétien when he was prime minister, said a vote by the Liberal caucus could be a swifter way ahead for the party than a nationwide contest.

“Mr. Trudeau may want a nationwide leadership race, but last I checked, he’s not running. So, the party has to decide the best way to choose a new leader. I think the best way is through caucus because I think it’s the quickest way,” he told Global News.

Goldenberg said there are other ways to ensure wider public participation, short of a full nationwide leadership campaign.

“They could have town hall meetings to showcase the candidates. The candidates can show Canadians who they are, what they stand for, how they appear in public, how they debate with each other, (and) how they would debate with (Conservative Leader Pierre) Poilievre,” he said, adding that the party could even decide to have riding association presidents vote.

The next step of the process is for the Liberal Party board of directors to set a date for the election and the voting eligibility mechanism. But however the election takes place, experts argue the party doesn’t have much time with Parliament set to reconvene on March 24.

“The pressure will be on the Liberals to select the leader before that time because if they don’t, then Trudeau has to meet Parliament (as prime minister) on the 24th,” Wiseman said.

Opposition parties have signalled their intent to bring down the government in a vote of non-confidence when Parliament resumes.

Wiseman said he expects the vote to take place in late February or early March, to give the next leader time to find their footing before an election. He said that while many names are doing the rounds for potential leaders, two front-runners remain top of mind for him.

“It’s probably going to be Chrystia Freeland. It’s either going to be her or Mark Carney,” he said.

He said that while some may see Freeland as being too close to Trudeau, her resignation letter may put some distance between her and the prime minister after she said the two were “at odds.”

Goldenberg added: “Given the way she has declared her independence from Mr. Trudeau in her letter of resignation, I think Chrystia Freeland will be the best candidate to be the leader and the prime minister.”