Rules Explainer: The Mechanics of the Liberal Leadership Race

5 min readJan 18, 2025

The rules governing the leadership race of the Liberal Party of Canada will be released in batches over the course of the race. They will be announced by what some of us affectionately call “Team Neutral” — the team of neutral volunteers managing the rules and programming the race.

As a former member of Team Neutral in more than one leadership race, I’ll be keeping track of new information from the team as it is introduced to help explain these updates in layperson terms in order to help party voters understand how to participate.

Other Content: To follow along with the candidates’ media engagement, check out my “Chief Messenger” leadership communications tracker. To learn more about their policy positions, visit my “Head Wonk” leadership policy cheat sheet.

Timelines:

January 23, 2025: The cut-off date for candidates to declare
January 27, 2025: The cut-off date to register as an eligible voter
February 11–12, 2025: The date registration procedures will be posted
February 24, 2025: French Leadership Debate in Montreal
February 25, 2025: English Leadership Debate in Montreal
March 9, 2025: The date a new leader is selected
March 24, 2025: The date Parliament resumes its business

“Team Neutral” Leadership Vote Committee:

A Leadership Vote Committee will plan and organize the race
Suzanne Cowan, Past President of the Party, and Marc-Etienne Vien, LPC(Q) Director, will co-chair the Leadership Vote Committee
MP Patricia Lattanzio and John Herhalt, Chair of the Federal Liberal Agency of Canada, will co-chair the Leadership Expense Committee
The expense committee will adopt Leadership Expense Rules for the leadership race and set a maximum expense limit
Beatrice Keleher Raffoul will serve as the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)
There will be at least one debate in English and one in French with rules determined by the Vote Committee

Financial Rules:

There will be a spending limit of $5,000,000 and a debt limit of $200,000
Candidates must file financial reports on a bi-weekly basis
The candidate entrance fee will be $350,000
A refundable payment of $50,000 due by January 23, 2025
A non-refundable payment of $50,000 due by January 30, 2025
A non-refundable payment of $125,000 due by February 7, 2025
A non-refundable payment of $125,000 due by February 17, 2025
Any funds the candidates raise above $500,000 will be subject to a 25% contribution tithe that will go directly to the Liberal Party
Failure to follow these rules could lead to disqualification

Candidate Eligibility:

Must be a Registered Liberal
Must be eligible to be a candidate in an election to serve in the House of Commons under the Canada Elections Act
Must complete a questionnaire and deliver it to the CEO
Must have the endorsement of 300 Registered Liberals, including at least 100 Registered Liberals of the Party from each of three different provinces or territories
Must meet the financial rules of the race
Must follow the Code of Conduct and report unacceptable behaviour

Voter Eligibility:

You must be a Registered Liberal as of 5 p.m. ET on January 27, 2025
You must be at least 14 years old
You must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person with status under the Indian Act
All eligible voters will be added to a “National Voters List” under the riding they live in
The Chief Electoral Officer will ensure the accuracy of the list and finalize it ahead of voting

Voting Rules:

The verification period will begin on February 20, 2025, and will close on March 7, 2025 at 5 PM ET
When the verification period opens, those that signed up to vote will receive instructions by email to confirm their eligibility
Participants can verify their identity through the Canada Post Identity+ mobile application, or with Canada Post Identity+ in-person at a participating Canada Post Office
The party has an official list of valid ID to use for verification
The voting period will begin on February 26 at 8 AM ET, and will close on March 9 at 3 PM ET
Once a participant’s identity is verified and the voting period opens, they’ll receive voting instructions by email and cast their vote online

Voting Details:

Securing the Vote

Each candidate must attend or send a designate to attend any unclassified foreign interference briefings offered by the government
The Leadership Vote Committee may require an online identification verification tool before providing a ballot to voters on the verified National Voters List

Balloting

The ballot will be “ranked choice,” allowing voters to rank each of the eligible candidates in order of preference
The way the vote will be conducted has yet to be decided but the rules allow for it to take place online, by phone, by mail, or in person

Weighted One-Member-One-Vote

The Leadership Vote is a direct vote of all Registered Liberals who meet the Leadership Vote eligibility requirements
The votes of all eligible voters will be tallied within their home Electoral District Association (EDA)
The vote, while direct, is also weighted — which means instead of a simple tally of every vote cast, which would bias the result to more populated communities, each EDA has an equal impact on the result
Each EDA is given 100 total points to award to each of the eligible candidates based on their share of individual votes in that EDA
Those points are then tallied into a “National Count” that determines the national support level for each of the eligible candidates based on the number of points they have been awarded

Voting Rounds and Selecting a Winner

Once the National Count is tallied, any candidate that receives a majority of points becomes the new leader
If no candidate receives a majority of points, the candidate with the least points is dropped off the ballot and removed from the race
A new count commences that includes the first preference votes of each of the remaining candidates and the redistributed second preference votes of the candidate that has been dropped
Local points are awarded and the National Count is conducted again
This process continues until a candidate receives a point majority

A Note on Redistribution:

Every ten years, our Constitution requires we undertake a redistricting process to ensure local riding boundaries still make sense as population changes occur. The 2022 redistricting process concluded in 2023 and went into effect for any election taking place after April 22, 2024.

The new boundaries mean there are now 343 local ridings, up from the previous 338. This means that 343 EDAs, multiplied by 100 points per riding, amounts to 34,300 total points up for grabs in the National Count. Therefore, a candidate must reach 17,151 points to win and become leader.

Theresa has served as the Communications Coordinator for the Ontario Liberal Party, the VP Communications for the Ontario Women’s Liberal Commission, the Director of Communications to Ontario Deputy Premier Deb Matthews, and an election-speechwriter for former Premier Kathleen Wynne. As a member of ‘Team Neutral’, she helped manage the 2013 and 2020 OLP Leadership races.