{"id":500129,"date":"2026-02-26T05:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500129\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:32:08","slug":"liberals-move-forward-with-nominations-as-election-talk-ramps-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500129\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberals move forward with nominations as election talk ramps up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney makes his way to a meeting of the Liberal caucus on Parliament Hill on Wednesday.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s<\/a> Liberals are beginning to prepare for the next election.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Party<\/a> unveiled its rules for selecting candidates on Wednesday and said it will begin the process of nominating people in ridings held by other parties in the coming days.<\/p>\n

The preparations follow two recent polls suggesting the party is widening its lead over the Conservatives<\/a>, generating renewed speculation that Mr. Carney may wish to call a snap election in the hopes of securing a majority.<\/p>\n

He has brought his party to the cusp of one. Three Conservatives have crossed the floor to the Liberals, who are continuing to try to entice MPs from that party and the NDP to join their team. The party is three seats away from a majority and there are three winnable by-elections set to take place in coming months.<\/p>\n

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MPs discussed their party\u2019s plans to move ahead with nominations during their caucus meeting Wednesday, five sources told The Globe and Mail, and the party confirmed the new rules were being rolled out when asked by The Globe. <\/p>\n

The sources, including three MPs, said the decision to start getting candidates nominated and preparing incumbents to face voters is prudent in a minority government. They said it doesn\u2019t mean a snap election call by Mr. Carney is in the offing.<\/p>\n

The Globe is not naming the sources as they are not permitted to publicly discuss caucus deliberations. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 2025 election, Mark Carney and our Liberal team earned a clear mandate from Canadians, electing a strong team of MPs from across the country,\u201d party spokesman Matteo Rossi said in an e-mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever the next campaign arrives, we\u2019re ready to re-elect our Liberal team to Parliament \u2013 and elect even more talented community leaders as new Liberal MPs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Conservatives have also already begun nominating candidates in ridings they don\u2019t hold, with around 30 ridings now in the final stages of securing candidates for the next campaign. <\/p>\n

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The bump suggested by the Angus Reid and Nanos surveys \u2212 along with the slump in Conservative fortunes \u2212 has people talking. <\/p>\n

Liberal MP James Maloney, who is also the national caucus chair, said while he likes the polls, no one wants an election. <\/p>\n

\u201cGo talk to my constituents and see how excited they are about having an election,\u201d he said Wednesday ahead of the caucus meeting. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey want us to govern.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, the Liberals won just under 44 per cent of the popular vote, with the Conservatives picking up just over 41 per cent. <\/p>\n

An Angus Reid survey released Tuesday suggests that the Liberals now have a 13-point lead over the Conservatives, while a Nanos research poll also released Tuesday gives the Liberals a seven-point lead.<\/p>\n

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre<\/a> is also polling far behind Mr. Carney when Canadians are asked about their preferred prime minister. <\/p>\n

Ahead of a Conservative Party caucus meeting Wednesday, MPs were asked by reporters whether they remain united. <\/p>\n

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Last week, they lost their third MP to the Liberals, Edmonton\u2019s Matt Jeneroux<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mr. Poilievre also distanced himself from MP Jamil Jivani after Mr. Jivani told a U.S. media outlet Canadians were throwing a \u201chissy fit\u201d over U.S. relations. <\/p>\n

But Alberta MP Laila Goodridge said the caucus is still a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a united caucus,\u201d she told reporters. <\/p>\n

The Liberals currently hold 169 seats in the House of Commons out of 343, but there are three vacancies. <\/p>\n

Two of those are long-time Liberal seats vacated by Chrystia Freeland and Bill Blair, and are likely return to the Liberals in the eventual by-elections. <\/p>\n

The party has already nominated candidates for both. <\/p>\n

The third is in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne, where the Liberals won by a single vote last spring over the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois. The Supreme Court has since overturned that result<\/a> and a by-election will be called. <\/p>\n

The Bloc is set to announce its candidate for the by-election in the riding on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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Should the Liberals win all three, that would give them 172 seats in the House of Commons, a mathematical majority. <\/p>\n

But that includes the Speaker, Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, who only votes in the event of a tie. To have a true upper hand in the Commons, the Liberals would need at least one other seat. <\/p>\n

The Tories won 144 seats in the 2025 campaign. <\/p>\n

Since then, they\u2019ve lost Michael Ma from Ontario, Chris d\u2019Entremont from Nova Scotia and Mr. Jeneroux. <\/p>\n

He attended his first Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday after announcing his move across the aisle last week. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Liberal MP Matt Jeneroux on Wednesday at Parliament Hill after attending his first meeting of the Liberal caucus since crossing the floor from the Conservatives.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

He has also been appointed Mr. Carney\u2019s special adviser on economic and security partnerships and will be accompanying the Prime Minister on a trip to India, Japan and Australia beginning Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prime Minister has an aggressive agenda around the world, and, you know, he\u2019s asked me to help him in supporting that,\u201d Mr. Jeneroux told reporters Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that\u2019s absolutely what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Jeneroux said he hopes to remain friends with some of his former party mates. <\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly have no bad words to say about people on the other side of the aisle,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, many of them are friends and deep friends, and a lot of them continue to text me. I hope to remain friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney makes his way to a meeting of the Liberal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-500129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}