Former B.C. premier Christy Clark will not run in the Liberal leadership race to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, she said Tuesday.
Sources tell CTV News Clark was “emotional” telling her core team about her decision on a conference call.
“I have made the difficult decision to step back,” Clark wrote in an email sent to her supporters.
“While we have come a long way, in a short time, there is simply not enough time to mount a successful campaign and for me to effectively connect with Francophone Canadians in their language,” she also wrote. “I have worked hard at improving my French but it’s not where it needs to be, today.”
Clark had expressed interest in running for the leadership, but has faced criticism for walking back claims about whether or not she joined the Conservative party three years ago to vote in its leadership race.
Government House Leader Karina Gould, meanwhile, will launch her bid for Liberal leader this week, a source close to her campaign tells CTV News.
She wants to run a campaign focused on affordability and younger Canadians, a source close to her says.
Gould, who was first elected in 2015 as the MP for Burlington, has headed up several cabinet portfolios since. In 2018, she made history as the first cabinet minister to take maternity leave.
Before she was elected, Gould worked as a trade and investment specialist for the Mexican Trade Commission in Toronto and as a consultant in the U.S. She has a master’s degree from the University of Oxford in England.
Who else is running?
She will join backbench MPs Jaime Battiste and Chandra Arya and former MP Frank Baylis on the list of contenders who’ve officially announced their intention to run.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne is expected to announce his leadership intentions today.
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland — who stepped down from Trudeau’s cabinet in a stunning resignation letter last month — is also set to announce her leadership run within the week, sources close to her tell CTV News.
Those sources say Freeland will make her announcement “close to” the inauguration day of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, along with her first policy plank and dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs.
Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney is also set to announce a run, with dozens of MPs lined up to support him, according to a source close to him.
Two sources tell CTV News Edmonton the former central banker is expected to begin his campaign in Edmonton, his hometown.
With files from CTV News’ Mike Le Couteur, Rachel Aiello, and Vassy Kapelos