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OTTAWA — Mark Carney’s leadership campaign said he’s fundraised a whopping $4.5 million during the Liberal party’s short, two-month race to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He will be eventually be sworn in as prime minister without holding a seat in Parliament, but he will not be the first prime minister to be sworn in without having a seat.
In June 1984, the unelected John Turner won the party leadership and succeeded Pierre Trudeau as prime minister two weeks later.
The Liberals went down to Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives in a landslide defeat that September, leaving Turner with a newly won seat but his party out of power.
In 1925 and again in 1945, Canada’s longest serving prime minister Mackenzie King lost his seat but remained at the Liberal helm to form government, winning by-elections months afterward in both cases.
As far back as Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald was appointed by the governor general to form the first constituent government on July 1, 1867, but was not elected to the House of Commons until a few weeks later.
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Carney’s spokesperson Emily Williams said the campaign raised the funds from more than 20,000 Canadians, and called it the “fastest” fundraising leadership campaign in Canadian history. No other candidate in the race scratched seven figures.
The leadership candidates were making their final get-out-the-vote push on Saturday, seeking to rally grassroots support from across the country and energize their volunteers.
Carney, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, former government House leader Karina Gould and former MP Frank Baylis are all running to lead their party into the next election.
An internal memo from Freeland’s campaign manager Tom Allison obtained by The Canadian Press said their campaign is taking nothing for granted at a “pivotal” moment in the race.
“We’re feeling great energy from Liberals for our fantastic, battle-tested candidate. This has been an uphill sprint for us: we started in January while some of our competitors have been organizing for over two and a half years,” Allison said.
The rah-rah note said the campaign is targeting ridings not traditionally held by the Liberals as part of its strategy to maximize Freeland’s vote efficiency in its big, final push.
It also said Freeland raised more than $750,000. That came from more than 3,000 donors.
Elections Canada data released Friday puts Freeland, Gould and Baylis in the ballpark of $360,000 fundraised, but the campaigns have said the publicly released figures don’t give an accurate picture of their hauls because the numbers are dated by about a week and don’t reflect money fundraised for the steep $350,000 entrance fee.
Gould’s campaign said she raised some $450,000, not counting funds from the entry fee.
She spent the week hosting a series of virtual town halls in different regions across the country.
“Karina’s been working really hard this week to engage with voters all across the country both in person and virtually,” said campaign spokesperson Emily Jackson, who added Gould is working the phone every day.
Baylis’s supporters say they’re showcasing their candidate as much as possible in the final days of the short race. He was in Surrey, B.C., meeting with the Sikh community this past week.
“The fact that the campaign has been so short has made it difficult for us because the more time passes, the more people are discovering Frank and reaching out to us and showing us their support,” said Baylis spokesperson Justine McIntyre.
The campaigns have also been working around a complicated voter identity verification process that has frustrated many party members.
The various campaigns have been marshaling volunteers to help voters through the process, which uses the Canada Post Identity+ app and may require multiple attempts to register.
“We still have some supporters that are telling us that they’re having difficulty voting, their validation hasn’t gone through and so on,” said McIntyre, adding the campaign is trying to help “as many people as we can.”
Liberal party spokesperson Parker Lund said that as of late Friday, 157,000 members have had their identities verified and 134,000 have voted.
Voting closes at 3 p.m. on Sunday for party members to select a successor for Trudeau with the winner expected to be announced in the evening. That person could be sworn in as prime minister within a matter of days.
— by Kyle Duggan, with Canadian Press files
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