Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that he’ll resign ahead of the next federal election, and Canadians are wondering who could be the next federal Liberal leader.
No one has formally announced their candidacy yet, but one political science lecturer at the University of British Columbia wonders if a familiar West Coast face could enter the ring: Christy Clark.
“There’s a potential path there where she can articulate that the Liberals are in desperate need of a different direction,” Stewart Prest told Daily Hive in an interview. “They’ve lost the trust of the majority of Canadians, and so a bigger change is necessary.”
Clark and her BC Liberal party formed BC’s government from 2011 to 2017. The BC Liberals were not affiliated with the federal Liberals. Clark and her party were BC’s primary centre-right party, battling for votes against the more left-leaning NDP.
By contrast, the federal Liberals are considered centre-left, balancing the centre-right Conservatives and working with the more left-leaning NDP.
If Clark’s previous premiership is anything to judge her views by, she may bring more right-leaning views to the Liberal leadership race. It could position her as a more centrist option than Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and demarcate the Liberals more from the federal NDP.
However, according to Prest, Clark is still very much an outsider to federal politics.
“I don’t know whether she has any kind of support within the actual voting members of the party or whether she’s able to build that in time,” he said. “So I think her candidacy would be looked at very much as a long shot.”
Still, Prest thinks she’s seemed “very eager to throw her hat in the ring.”
Daily Hive has contacted Clark’s team for comment but has not yet heard back.
Clark shared a post on X Monday thanking Justin Trudeau for his service and expressing dedication to being part of the process of choosing the next leader. She didn’t say whether she’d put herself forward to be leader, but some followers wondered if that was the message behind her tweet.
Someone’s ready to seize the position lol
— Melissa Mbarki (@MelissaMbarki) January 6, 2025
Speculation about Clark’s ambitions to replace Trudeau isn’t new. Clark herself has hinted she may be interested in federal leadership.
Back in October, she told Radio-Canada, the French arm of CBC, that she would be interested in returning to public life and would like to “be part of the discussion” about the future of the Liberal party. Radio-Canada also reported that Clark had been taking French lessons for several months, potentially in preparation for bilingual federal politics.