Jaime Battiste drops out of running for Liberal leadership

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This article was published 30/01/2025 (273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Nova Scotia Liberal MP Jaime Battiste says he is dropping out of the Liberal party leadership race and backing former central banker Mark Carney.

The MP for Sydney—Victoria made the announcement in a statement sent out late Thursday by his campaign.

Battiste was the only Indigenous candidate in the running and sought to put First Nations issues on the agenda during the contest.

He says the best way for him to advance the issues he cares about — reconciliation, the environment and affordability — is by supporting Carney’s leadership bid.

“After careful consideration and many discussions, I believe that the best way forward to advocate and advance the priorities, which I outlined earlier this week during my campaign, of advancing  reconciliation, protecting our environment, and an affordable Canada by addressing the wealth gap is to support Mark Carney for the Liberal Party of Canada Leadership and Prime Minister of Canada,” Battiste said in a statement Thursday. 

Five candidates remain in the race, including Liberal MPs Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould, and former MPs Frank Baylis and Ruby Dhalla.

In a news release Thursday, the Liberal Party of Canada said that almost 400,000 registered Liberals had signed up to vote in the upcoming leadership race. It said that number was preliminary as the party continues to review applications and leadership campaigns will be able to challenge the status of those who are registered to vote.

The news release said the party had “its best-ever January” for grassroots fundraising and that, over the last month, more than 100 Canadians had reached out to be a Liberal candidate in the next election.

Baylis officially launched his campaign at an event in Montreal on Thursday evening. 

At the event, he said he had a “prosperity agenda.” Baylis said his priorities were addressing the cost of living by investing in Canadian companies and universities and getting the government’s finances in order; improving the health care system by leveraging nurse practitioners; and modernizing the government by taking “power from the prime minister” and giving it back to members of Parliament and citizens. 

Baylis also said the way the carbon tax is currently set up isn’t working and is “hurting the wrong people.” He said he would fix the carbon tax and “drive towards clean air,” though didn’t specify how. 

Speaking about potential tariffs from the U.S., Baylis said “we need to meet fire with fire” and use dollar-for-dollar tariffs. He said his experience as a businessman would allow him to negotiate with Trump. 

“You get hit, you hit back. You get hit twice, you hit back twice. He puts a dollar tariff, fine, we put a dollar tariff,” Baylis said. “He will understand that he is not pushing us around.” 

Earlier Thursday, Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould said that if she becomes prime minister, she’ll lower the GST by a point to four per cent for a year to give struggling Canadians some tax relief. She said she believes the measure would cost about $11 billion.

On the revenue side, she also pledged to hike the corporate tax rate from 15 to 17 per cent for businesses making more than $500 million in profits annually.

“When it comes to things like groceries, we see big companies who own too much of the market share increasing the price of groceries, bringing in shrinkflation, and honestly just making it harder for Canadians to get the very basics that they need,” Gould said. “I think it’s time that those very wealthy corporations pay their fair share.”

A Leger poll this week found Carney — who is focusing his candidacy for the Liberal leadership on his economic credentials — is surging at 34 per cent support among Canadians, with former finance minister Chrystia Freeland in second place at 14 per cent.

Carney, who has racked up many high-profile cabinet and caucus endorsements, is polling at 57 per cent among Liberal voters, compared to Freeland at 17 per cent. 

Gould is sitting at four per cent among both Canadians in general, and Liberal voters in particular.

Leger reached 1,527 Canadian adults and 336 Liberal voters from Jan. 24 to 26. The poll does not come with a margin of error because it is an online survey.

Liberals choose their next leader on March 9.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2025.