The Liberal Party of Canada has heeded the call from many of its MPs to strengthen security around the upcoming vote to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister and party leader.
The party announced the rules for the contest on Jan. 9 and at the same time updated the requirements around who can become a registered Liberal to vote to chose the new leader.
“Protecting the integrity of our democratic process, while still engaging as many people as possible, is one of the Liberal Party of Canada’s top priorities,” the party said in a statement.
The new rules align with other major political parties by preventing foreign nationals from become party members.
Before Jan. 9, anyone who “ordinarily” resides in Canada and is 14 years of age and older could become a registered Liberal.
Going forward, only Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and those who have status under the Indian Act can register. The party has maintained it’s no-fee approach to membership.
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Amid foreign interference concerns, a number of Liberal MPs in recent days said party membership should be tightened for the leadership race, which will decide not only the party leader, but the prime minister.
They made their case on Jan. 8 when the party held a national caucus meeting in Ottawa attended by party executives.
“A lot of us raised the issue and raised the concern about making sure that this race for leader is absolutely secure,” B.C. MP Taleeb Noormohamed said after the meeting.
The Foreign Interference Commission and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians have highlighted government intelligence indicating that foreign states such as China and India have sought to interfere with party nomination contests and leadership races.
Some social media users in recent days have highlighted issues with the Liberal Party’s sign-up process, which doesn’t require providing a credit card, by making posts online of having registered pets or foreign political figures as party members.
Liberal Party spokesperson Parker Lund addressed the matter in a post on the social media platform X on Jan. 8.
“The Liberal Party of Canada is aware of these ridiculous, fraudulent registration attempts,” he said. The national Party Secretary has the ability to remove registrants from our lists, and will be removing these fraudulent profiles well in advance of any leadership vote.”
The party announced the leadership vote is set to take place on March 9, two weeks before the new parliamentary session begins.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the governor general to prorogue Parliament until March 24, preventing opposition parties from toppling the government and providing the Liberal Party a window to find his replacement.
The new party leader will also become prime minister and will need to prepare a Throne Speech to launch the new parliamentary session, outlining the government’s agenda. Opposition parties could at this time declare their non-confidence to bring down government and trigger an election.
With the leadership contest rules now released, more contenders are expected to announce their candidacy. Two potential contenders, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, have already announced they will not run.
The fee to enter the contest is $350,000 and hopefuls have up to Jan. 23 to file their candidacy.
