Canada Liberals vote to replace Trudeau as PM

OTTAWA: Canada's Liberal Party elects a new leader this weekend to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister and take charge of confronting the threats posed by US President Donald Trump.

Trudeau, who became Liberal leader in 2013 before taking over as prime minister two years later, announced in early January that he planned to resign, overcome by dismal polling numbers and internal party dissent.

Before Christmas, the opposition Conservatives looked certain to win a general election that must be held by October but could be called within weeks. Trade chaos with the United States and Trump´s repeated musing about annexing Canada have upended the political climate and surveys show the Liberals gaining ground.

“The context is completely unprecedented. Right now the only thing that matters to Canadians is ´who is the right person to take on Donald Trump?´” Frederic Boily of the University of Alberta told AFP.

Four candidates qualified to run in the Liberal leadership race but only two are seen as viable contenders. The front-runner is Mark Carney, who led the Bank of Canada before becoming the first non-Briton to serve as governor of the Bank of England.

His main challenger is Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau´s former finance minister who dramatically broke with the prime minister in December, issuing a scathing resignation letter that partly pushed him to resign.