The Liberal Party of Canada has announced two leadership debates — one in English and one in French — to be held in Montreal later this month, ahead of the vote to determine their next leader and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s successor.
On Saturday, the party announced the French debate will take place on Feb. 24, and the English debate the following day.
The debates fall less than two weeks before the March 9 vote to secure the Liberal Party’s new leader.
“This is a time for Liberals across the country to exchange ideas and engage in thoughtful debate to shape the future of our party and our country – and I encourage all Liberals to get involved in this exciting moment for our party, Sachit Mehra, President of the Liberal Party of Canada, said in a statement announcing the vote in early January.
The campaign teams for the remaining Liberal leadership contestants all confirmed Friday they have cleared a major fundraising hurdle, allowing them to remain in the race.
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The campaigns said they have each paid the party $125,000 that was due Friday — part of an instalment plan to manage a hefty total entry fee of $350,000.
The candidates will have to come up with a final payment of $125,000 by Feb. 17.
The Liberal party is looking to replace Trudeau in record time. Trudeau announced Jan. 6 that he would step down as soon as a new leader was elected, and prorogued Parliament until March 24. The party later announced it would elect its next leader on March 9.
The contestants for party leader are former Liberal House leader Karina Gould, former Liberal MP Frank Baylis, former Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, former central bank governor Mark Carney and former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland.
The party reported a week ago that nearly 400,000 supporters registered as members to vote in the leadership race before the deadline.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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