The federal Liberal leadership contest is officially underway, under a compressed timeline that leaves many to complain that there isn’t sufficient time for candidates to build momentum. And little wonder—the ways in which political leaders are chosen in this country have become a quasi-American primary system that has strayed far away from its Westminster origins and has impacted the quality of our democracy. Nevertheless, it is now paramount for the Liberals to revitalize themselves enough to mount a sufficient defence against an expected electoral wipeout in favour of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. And that is going to mean some difficult conversations in the weeks ahead that queer and trans communities should concern themselves with.
The unfortunate reality of where Canadian politics are at in 2025 is that the best way for people to have a say in federal policy is to participate in a leadership contest. Our system was built for people to engage in politics at the grassroots level by joining riding associations, where they would debate policy resolutions to send to party conventions, or to vote on nominees to represent them on the ballot in elections—and more importantly, to hold incumbents to account. As the focus turned more toward leaders over the past century, who have accumulated more powers within parties at the expense of the grassroots, it was those leaders who began setting policy. The choice of the leader became the determining factor in the direction of the party, not the will of the grassroots. This is where we find ourselves today.
The Liberals are at a crossroads now that Justin Trudeau is stepping away, and as the field of candidates to replace him starts to take shape, there is going to be a debate around what the Liberal party is supposed to be, with a lot of focus around whether the party “went too far to the left” under Trudeau, that it needs to return to the “radical centre” (which is something of a ridiculous term, given that centrism normally eschews radicalism) and what that “centre” is supposed to mean in economic or social terms. You already have some of the no-hope candidates like Nepean MP Chandra Arya dismissing DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) “quotas” for cabinet positions, and presumably other senior roles—which may simply be the sour grapes of a backbencher who never made it into cabinet, but nevertheless goes into the pushback against the so-called “woke” rhetoric that Trudeau espoused.
This is why it will be necessary for queer and trans voices to be heard during the leadership contest. This will ensure that the discussions around where Liberal values sit don’t wind up either sidelining our communities’ rights or reducing them to platitudes where leadership candidates say these rights are important, but don’t do anything substantial about them. As it stands, there remain problems in this country where legal equality may be achieved, but substantive equality remains elusive because there is little follow-through in terms of actions from different levels of government on the needs of our communities, or because there is a lack of resources. What resources that do exist will be on the chopping block either from the Conservatives, or potential Liberal leaders who will be looking to cut spending so that they can claim fiscal credibility because they got spooked by the Conservatives’ false claims that the budget deficit caused the spike in inflation.
This will likely dovetail with more conversations within the party as they look south to see what lessons they can draw from the failure of the Democrats in the last U.S. election, and there will no doubt be an endless litany of complaints about the so-called “woke” language or ideology. There were a lot of early assumptions immediately following that election about why Kamala Harris lost that further polling and exploration of the electoral data didn’t bear out—particularly that it was less of the “landslide” that the Republicans claimed.
There will be talk about how the Democrats didn’t meet people where they were in terms of programs. This is a more difficult problem in Canada because the legitimate complaints that people have with healthcare or housing are being blamed on Trudeau and the federal government rather than with the provinces where they properly belong, because most people don’t understand federalism or the division of powers in this country (and most media outlets only add to that confusion). It didn’t help that Trudeau took the lesson that Joe Biden was not credited for the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic, leading to Trudeau’s desperate policies of the GST “holiday” and the aborted plan to send out $250 cheques (which his entire caucus surrendered their dignity to try and defend).
So how does one get involved in the contest to be heard? Signing up for the party in order to participate in the leadership is one way, and because of the compressed timeline, it means that people need to register before Jan. 27. Because the Liberals eliminated paid memberships several years ago, any Canadian resident or permanent resident 14 years old or older can sign up to participate so long as they don’t currently hold a membership with another party. This both makes it easier for more people to participate (a tactic the Liberals chose as a way to more easily populate their voter identification database), but also makes them more susceptible to mischief from hostile partisans and potential foreign interference (though the latter would be extremely hard to organize given the way in which the point system for calculating results works).
In many ways, the Liberals are hoping that this leadership can build excitement and energy for the party, which is sorely needed after its flagging fortunes and the outgoing leadership’s inability to properly make the case for why they deserved more time in office. A new leader could make that case, but we also have to remember that Donald Trump’s predations will also change the ballot question away from Trudeau and the carbon levy, no matter if that it’s what Pierre Poilievre will try to keep focusing on because he thinks he’ll get rage and resentment that will benefit him electorally. It means that the Liberals will need to find a leader with the credibility to take on both Trump and Poilievre, which is going to be no small feat.
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