Who might replace Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party?

Justin Trudeau's nine years as Canadian Prime Minister are coming to an end after he announced he will step down as leader of the ruling Liberal Party.

This means his party must now find a new leader to compete in a general election that opinion polls indicate is headed for defeat.

Here are some of the people expected to enter the Liberal leadership race.

The Toronto MP is seen as one of the leading contenders to succeed the outgoing leader, and has become one of the most high-profile members of Trudeau's team.

While she had long been seen as a trusted senior official in his inner circle, a rift with the Prime Minister's Office led to her recent surprise resignation in December.

Her criticism of Trudeau in her public resignation speech increased the pressure on him and made his departure seem inevitable.

Born to a Ukrainian mother in western Alberta, the 56-year-old was a journalist before entering politics.

She entered the House of Commons in 2013, and two years later joined Trudeau's government on a business brief after the party swept to power.

As Foreign Minister, Canada helped renegotiate the free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico.

She was later appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance — the first woman to hold that position — and oversaw Canada's fiscal response to the COVID pandemic.

She resigned last month, criticizing Trudeau as not being strong enough in his handling of Donald Trump's threat to impose US tariffs on Canadian goods.

A 2019 Globe and Mail profile, depending on who you asked, said Freeland was either the last and best hope for the liberal world order or an unattainable idealist.

Her unwavering support for Ukraine has drawn praise in some quarters, but the Harvard-educated lawmaker has had her share of critics, including Trump, who recently called her “toxic.”

Trudeau himself admitted that he had long been trying to recruit Mark Carney to his team, most recently as finance minister.

“He would be a great addition at a time when Canadians need good people to get involved in politics,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO conference in July 2024.

Carney (59 years old), who in recent months has worked as a special advisor to Trudeau, has long been considered a contender for this high position.

The Harvard graduate has never held public office, but has a strong economic background, having worked at the top of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

He also brings with him experience on environmental matters through his role as UN Special Envoy on Climate Action, recently describing the net zero goal as “the greatest business opportunity of our time”.

Carney is a champion of some unpopular Liberal policies within the country's conservative circles such as the federal carbon tax, the party's signature climate policy that critics say is a financial burden on Canadians.

He has already criticized Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Canadian Conservative Party, saying that his vision for the country's future is “without a plan” and “mere slogans.”

“I'm the person in the conversation who's actually working, who's actually working, who's making the decisions,” he said.

Anand is often described as one of the most ambitious members of the Liberal caucus.

The 57-year-old lawyer entered the political scene in 2019 when she was elected to represent the riding of Oakville, outside Toronto.

She is an Oxford-educated academic with a background in financial markets regulation and corporate governance.

She was immediately awarded the Ministerial Brief for Public Services and Procurement, putting her on task to secure vaccines and personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.

Anand was then appointed defense minister in 2021, where he led Canada's efforts to provide assistance to Ukraine in its war against Russia and oversaw a personnel crisis in the Canadian Armed Forces mired in sexual misconduct scandals.

When Anand was moved from that ministry to oversee the Treasury Board, many saw it as a demotion, and Trudeau's critics went so far as to speculate that it was punishment for her ambitions to one day lead the party.

In December, she was transferred again, during a cabinet reshuffle, to the position of Minister of Transport and Minister of Internal Trade.

The former businessman and international trade specialist is another Liberal minister said to be eyeing the party's top job.

But his journey through the ranks to a senior position was slower than Anand's.

Champagne, 54, entered the House of Commons in 2015, but has since moved to International Trade and Foreign Affairs and most recently to the Department for Innovation, Science and Industry.

But there are several things working in its favor. Champagne is from Quebec, a province whose vote has often mattered greatly in Canadian federal elections.

He was also dubbed the “Canadian Dope Bunny” by some critics, who witnessed his enthusiasm as he traveled the world with his innovation portfolio with the goal of selling everything made in Canada.

Because of his business acumen, political observers see him as a viable option to lure centrist liberals back into the fold.

Like Trudeau, Jolie represents riding in the Montreal area.

To foreign leaders, the 45-year-old is a familiar face, having represented Canada on the world stage since 2021.

As the current Foreign Minister, she has made several trips to Ukraine to show Canada's support. She traveled to Jordan to help evacuate Canadian citizens in the region when war broke out between Israel and Hamas.

Jolie has also been at the center of some of the government's biggest foreign policy challenges, including the diplomatic crisis sparked by the alleged assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil by Indian agents.

The Oxford-educated lawyer is a well-connected Francophone politician who previously ran for mayor of Montreal.

She has been tapped by Trudeau personally to run for a federal job in politics.

“He would call me every now and then and say, 'Melanie, you have to run away, we want you to run away,'” Jolie said.

Senior advisers have praised her ability to work in a room of seven or 700 people, and she has long harbored ambitions to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party, close friends told Canadian magazine Maclean's.

LeBlanc, 57, is one of Trudeau's closest and most trusted allies.

Their friendship runs deep, with LeBlanc babysitting Trudeau and his siblings when they were young.

He has a track record of assuming ministerial portfolios at difficult moments, including taking over as finance minister within hours of Freeland's surprise resignation.

LeBlanc also took on the difficult task of accompanying Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago in November to meet with Trump.

The former lawyer has been a Member of Parliament for more than two decades, having first been elected in 2000 to represent New Brunswick's Atlantic Province.

Like Trudeau, LeBlanc was born into a political family. His father served as a minister in the government of Trudeau's legendary father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and later as Governor General of Canada.

LeBlanc showed previous ambitions to lead the party, as he ran in the 2008 elections but lost to Michael Ignatieff. He did not run again in the next leadership race, which Trudeau won.

He is in remission after cancer treatment and is known to be friendly and a strong political communicator.

The former British Columbia premier has expressed interest in throwing her hat into the Liberal leadership ring.

She said in a statement in October that she “wants to be part of the conversation about the future direction of the Liberal Party and the country” if Trudeau steps down.

Clark, 59, served as leader of Canada's westernmost province from 2011 to 2017, where she earned a reputation for her ability to balance environmental priorities while developing B.C.'s energy industry.

She has repeatedly said in interviews in the past two years that Trudeau has become a liability for the federal Liberals.

She was reportedly taking French lessons, according to Radio-Canada. Proficiency in French is a prerequisite for federal politicians in Canada.