Former B.C. premier Christy Clark has announced she won’t enter the race to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, citing concerns about a potentially rushed campaign.
In an email to supporters on Tuesday, Clark said she had made “the difficult decision” not to run for the federal Liberal leadership.
“The timing of the prime minister’s resignation just did not leave enough time for the party to build a process that will renew and grow our party,” she wrote.
“Our party must still find a way to generate new momentum and energy. To open itself up to a broader group of Canadians who have felt left out, but who can’t abide the snarling, sneering politics of Pierre Poilievre or the unrealistic approach of the NDP.”
She also cited inadequate French skills, and concerns that she would not be able to “effectively connect with Francophone Canadians in their language.”
Clark left office in 2017 after her party, the former B.C. Liberals, was toppled by a confidence and supply agreement between the provincial NDP and Greens.
The centre-right B.C. Liberals had not been affiliated with Trudeau’s federal Liberals for decades at that point, and later rebranded to B.C. United, in part to avoid voter confusion on the matter.
Last week, in an interview with the CBC, Clark denied ever having been a member of the federal Conservatives – only to walk back that claim after the party provided records on social media showing her membership from June 2022 to June 2023.
Clark wrote that she “misspoke” in the interview, and reiterated her support for Poilievre’s opponent Jean Charest in the Conservatives’ 2022 leadership race.
She expanded on her criticism of the Conservative leader in her email to supporters Tuesday, calling him a “bully here at home” but a “pathetic pushover for the MAGA Republicans” south of the border.
“Poilievre would rather attack Canadians than call out Donald Trump,” she wrote. “We don’t need Governor Poilievre. We need the Liberal Party at the top of its game.”
With files from The Canadian Press
