By Pepper Parr
January 19th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Chandra Arya, Jaime Battiste and Frank Baylis – who are they?
Their names will be on the ballot Liberal Party members will be given when they vote for the new Party leader on March 9. That assumes they have paid the required registration fees. They don’t have a hope but they will never the less be on a ballot that is ranked.
When the results of the first vote are shown, Liberals will have some idea how Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould did.
Karina Gould
Mark Carney
Chrystia Freeland
That is the reason Arya, Battiste and Baylis are on the ballot. They will have put up the $150,000 they need to be candidates; the balance of the entry fee becomes due in February – it will be paid in two parts of $100,000 each.
As each of the three are taken off the ballot the public will see any shifts in support that have taken place.
Whoever leads – will it be Carney or Freeland it will become clear if they were able to hold their support.
Party members will make their choices before the balloting takes place on March 9th.
Party members do not get to vote again once the ballots are counted. The Chief Electoral Officer announces who was eliminated; the second choices are distributed and the new totals displayed.
The Liberal Chief Electoral Officer has yet to decide how the results will be announced and where this process will take place.
This is a very fluid situation. Everyone involved is committed to a fair election process; the timeframes are very short – the outcome for the Liberal Party is critical – if they get it right they have a hope when the country wide federal election takes place.
Pepper, perhaps you could do the electorate a favour by explaining what form of RB the Liberal party will be using. For example if on the first pass, the top candidate receives 30% of the votes, do the ballots from the bottom candidate then flow to the next candidate and so on until one candidate has a majority. Asking for a friend.
I am over 14, no membership fee, so I might join to elect the next leader. Or make sure the wrong candidate does not get my vote. Baylis look interesting.