Liberals lagging other parties in candidates as election call could be days away
No party has a full slate yet, with writ likely to be dropped by the end of the week
With a federal election call likely in a matter of days, no political party has nominated candidates to all 343 ridings, with Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals behind all the other national parties.
The Conservatives lead the pack, with 258 out of 343 ridings filled as of last week.
The NDP is in second place, with 217 candidates ready as of Tuesday.
In third place, the Green Party has nominated 208 candidates.
The Liberal Party is at 185.
The Bloc Québécois, which only runs candidates in Quebec, has names for 53 of the province's 78 ridings. Though only 11 were officially nominated as of Tuesday, the party points out 29 of its current 33 MPs have announced they plan to run again, and some 16 other people have been announced as candidates.
"It's important to remember that the Liberals just went through a leadership campaign and many MPs, before the Liberal leadership contest and before the resignation of Mr. Trudeau, were clearly dissatisfied with their leader and some threatened to walk out the door," said Cristine De Clercy, a political science professor at Trent University.
De Clercy pointed out Carney's new leadership, along with the rising fortunes for Liberals in the polls, may change the calculus for some potential candidates.
"It's difficult to recruit candidates when you're not sure if the incumbent is leaving or not," she said.
But as it looked like Carney would win the leadership race, some incumbents who had previously announced they were not running changed course, such as Industry Minister Anita Anand and Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long.
Still, Melanee Thomas, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, said the number of Liberal nominees is unusually low this close to a campaign.
"It is just about half of the candidates that they need," she said. "That's got to get up there before they drop the writ."
Thomas, who ran for the NDP in 2004 and 2006 under Jack Layton, also said it is little surprise the Conservatives are ahead of everyone else.
"They've been agitating for an election for months," she said.
De Clercy agreed, saying the Conservatives "clearly are on the ball."
Thomas said parties which are preoccupied with meeting gender and diversity quotas to better represent Canadian demographics tend to have longer nomination periods. She pointed to the NDP's constitution having such obligations.
Little time for vetting before snap election
Both Thomas and De Clercy said one hazard for all parties is vetting candidates too quickly.
De Clercy said there's the risk that candidates have made online posts, potentially dating back to when they were teenagers, that could become a problem for the party if they were to resurface during the campaign.
Rushing to fill the vacant spots "leaves parties and candidates vulnerable to gaffes," Thomas agreed.
Though Parliament is officially prorogued until March 24, Carney is an unelected prime minister, with no seat in the House.
Since his victory in the Liberal leadership race last week, many senior elected officials have said Canadians need a government with a strong mandate to lead the country amid the economic threats represented by U.S. President Donald Trump.
"The prime minister is committed to the electoral process," Anand told CBC's Power and Politics host David Cochrane on Monday.
"I know the prime minister would like to have a seat in the House of Commons, and we would very much like to see him sitting there with us as the prime minister of this country," she said.
The opposition parties have threatened to vote down the Liberal government in a non-confidence motion if Parliament resumes before an election.
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