Liberal leadership candidates must clear steep hurdle today to remain in the race​on February 7, 2025 at 7:20 pm

OTTAWA — Liberal leadership candidates face a 5 p.m. deadline to clear their biggest hurdle yet to stay in the race: shelling out $125,000 to the party.

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The Liberal party set a high bar to run in the unusually short race — a total entry fee of $350,000.

Challengers still in the running already have made two payments of $50,000 each. In addition to today’s $125,000 instalment, they will have to clear the final instalment of $125,000 by Feb. 17.

Nova Scotia MP Jaime Battiste, who was the only First Nations candidate in the race, dropped out of the running when the last payment deadline arrived a week ago, saying his campaign struggled to raise the funds in such a short time.

Former Liberal House leader Karina Gould said Thursday her campaign is doing everything it can to remain in the race, despite not having the resources of her main rivals.

She said the party establishment tried “as hard as possible” to keep the number of candidates low, and now she’s working to meet an “extremely aggressive” fundraising deadline.

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Her campaign raised questions about how long she can stay in the race when it sent out a fundraising email Tuesday night that warned supporters she needs to raise $100,000 by the 5 p.m. deadline.

Former Liberal MP and Montreal businessman Frank Baylis said Thursday he will meet all the fundraising deadlines.

“I understand the party. It’s in a very difficult position. This is a very condensed race. We have a very short time period,” he said. “But I respect what the party is doing, and we’re going to work within the confines of the rules that the parties laid out.”

Three other candidates remain in the race: former central bank governor Mark Carney and former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland — widely seen as the front-runners — and former MP Ruby Dhalla.

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Freeland’s campaign said in an email to supporters on Thursday that this past week “marked a significant milestone as Chrystia made the $125,000 payment the party required to run for the leadership.”

The Liberal party is looking to replace Prime Minister Justin 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 shortly thereafter announced it would elect its next leader on March 9.

There will be two debates — one in English and one in French _ after the Feb. 17 final fee payment deadline passes.

The party reported a week ago that nearly 400,000 supporters registered as members to vote in the leadership race before the deadline.

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