Who will replace Justin Trudeau as Canada’s Liberal Party leader? Here’s what you need to know

 The race is underway to replace Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Frontrunners to lead Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party, including the internationally recognizable Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney, are making the case they can guide Canada through numerous domestic and international issues, including mounting trade tensions with the United States.

Following a series of political crises last year, Trudeau announced in January he would resign as Liberal leader once his replacement is chosen – and eventually hand over the Prime Minister’s office as well.

This Sunday, Liberals finally tally the votes and announce their new leader, all as Canada’s general elections loom later this year. Here is what you need to know:

Why is Trudeau stepping down?

Trudeau has led the party for over a decade. He took the Liberals to power in 2015, promising “sunny ways” for Canada and was elected two more times since then, most recently in 2021, when he remained in power but lost his governing majority.

He championed progressive issues like combating climate change and addressing historic abuses against Indigenous peoples, but the latter years of his premiership have been marked by rising economic discontent. His administration was also rocked last year by the surprise resignation of Freeland, who was then deputy prime minister and finance minister, just hours before she was due to deliver her annual fiscal update.

Trudeau is stepping down ahead of a major challenge to the Liberal party’s rule, with general elections expected by October. Liberals have been polling poorly against their Conservative rivals, helmed by right-wing firebrand Pierre Poilievre. But in recent weeks, the opposition lead has narrowed as Trudeau’s potential successors, like Carney, take strong, public stances on the ongoing trade dispute with the United States.

Though Trudeau will step down as Liberal leader following Sunday’s vote, he has not given an exact date to relinquish power as prime minister. The next Liberal prime minister will be able request new federal elections within days, weeks, or months.

What does the US have to do with it?

Relations with the US have soured under the Trump administration. The past three months have seen US President Donald Trump blame Canada for illegal immigration into the US, threaten to turn Canada into the US’s 51st state, and impose steep tariffs on Canadian imports, which the White House says is necessary to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

Rhetoric traded between Trump and Trudeau has galvanized feelings of nationalism among some Canadians; at NHL and NBA games in Canada, fans have even been booing the US National Anthem. The cross-border tensions may also have put some wind in the sails of the Liberal party, as Conservative leader Poilievre – who has previously been compared to Trump – seeks to distance himself from the US leader, reiterating at a Tuesday press conference that he is “not MAGA.”

“Canadian politics is being convulsed by the Trump government’s assertions about Canada’s future as he saw it, and secondly by the tariffs that were very puzzling to a lot of people given the depth of interdependence between the Canadian and American economies,” Allan Tupper, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, told CNN.

Whoever takes the mantle from Trudeau will have to be a tough negotiator, “particularly on tariffs,” Tupper added. “It just may be a different kind of Canada to deal with, it’s going to be more assertive, more nationalistic and more in charge of its destiny.”

Who are the main candidates?

Mark Carney: Among the race’s frontrunners is Carney, a former governor of both the Bank of England and Bank of Canada. Drawing on his finance background, Carney has made clean energy, climate policies and economic prosperity for Canada some of the central facets of his campaign.

When launching his campaign, Carney highlighted his role in helping the Canadian government address its debt during the 2008 financial crisis and his role in navigating Britain’s economy through Brexit. He has also called for bringing economic prosperity to Canada with the help of its natural resources and making Canada a leader in clean energy.

Experts say Carney has received backing from Liberal lawmakers and even Trudeau’s cabinet, and his economics experience could make him the man for the moment.

“He’s very competent in economics, so with these tariffs, this economic war, a lot of people are supporting him,” said Charles-Etienne Beaudy, political science professor at the University of Ottawa and author of “Radio Trump: How he won the first time.”

Carney, like the other candidates, has not shied away from questions on how to tackle the Trump administration, telling CNN in February that despite being “insulted on multiple occasions by senior members of the administration. We are not going to reciprocate in those insults.”

Since the US tariffs were announced last month, Carney has been an outspoken proponent of dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs that would hit the US hard but have minimal impact on Canada.