Endorsements from incumbent Members of Parliament
The tallies of endorsements from sitting Liberal MPs were as follows:
As typical in leadership contests of major political parties in Canada and other countries with government based on the Westminster model, the public support of incumbent caucus members were the endorsements most prized by the contestants and most often cited by journalists and pundits.
The significance of endorsements generally speaking diminished over time as Canadian political parties uniformly shifted their leadership election processes from caucus votes to delegated convention in early 1900s and further to direct-voting by party members in early 2000s, as former public office holders and party officials no longer have formalized outsized votes through entitlement as automatic delegates. Only the tracking of current caucus support remained a key feature of leadership contests of all parties with significant parliamentary representation as they serve as readily demonstratable, quantifiable and reasonably comparable indicators of support commanded by the contestants. Such endorsements however do not always translate to actual strength, and the lacking of such support may not necessarily prevent a contestant from being competitive. (For example, Christy Clark, former premier of British Columbia who publicly explored a bid in the early weeks of this contest, won the 2011 BC Liberals leadership contest with endorsement from only one of the approximately fifty incumbent caucus members, while her two main rivals each claimed approximately twenty.)
In previous contests, the endorsements of Liberal Senators were also actively sought after by contestants and often given comparable prominence in news reporting. With the expulsion of all Liberals Senators from caucus in 2014 by party leader Justin Trudeau and the practice of appointing independent senators during his premiership, the number of senators who once held caucus membership gradually diminished. Only three former Liberal senators remained in office during this contest. In addition, Trudeau also appointed former Liberal MPs Rodger Cuzner and Nancy Karetak-Lindell and a number of former Liberal candidates, aides, provincial MLAs and partisan activists to the Senate during his premiership. Of the incumbent senators with documented affiliation to or membership with the party, Senator Percy Downe took a public position calling for the contest in November 2024 but did not endorse any of the contestants. No other incumbent senator played any visible role or expressed their support publicly for any of the contestant in this contest.
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