Justin Trudeau has announced that he will resign as leader of the ruling Liberal Party, as his nine-year term as Canada’s prime minister comes to an end.

That means his party must now find a new leader for a general election that polls suggest they will lose.

Here are some of the people expected to run for the Liberal leadership.

The Toronto MP is seen as one of the top contenders to replace the outgoing leader and has become one of the most high-profile members of Trudeau’s team.

While she has long been regarded as a trusted senior official within his inner circle, a feud with the prime minister’s office led to her sudden resignation in December.

Her criticism of Trudeau in her public resignation letter put pressure on him and made his departure seem inevitable.

The 56-year-old was born in the western province of Alberta to a Ukrainian mother and worked as a journalist before entering politics.

She entered the House of Commons in 2013 and joined cabinet two years later with a trade briefing after Trudeau swept the party into power.

As foreign minister, she helped Canada renegotiate free trade agreements with the United States and Mexico.

She was later named deputy prime minister and finance minister — the first woman to hold the position — and oversaw Canada’s fiscal response to the pandemic.

When she resigned last month, she criticized Trudeau for not being forceful enough in dealing with Donald Trump’s threat to impose U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.

A 2019 profile in The Globe and Mail described Freeland as either the last, best hope for the liberal world order or an idealist out of touch with reality, depending on who you ask.

Her unwavering support for Ukraine has won praise in some quarters, but the Harvard-educated congresswoman has also faced criticism, including from Trump, who recently called her “toxic.”

Trudeau himself has admitted that he has long tried to recruit Mark Carney to his team, most recently as finance minister.

“He will be an excellent addition at a time when Canadians need good people to participate in politics,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in July 2024.

Carney, 59, has served as Trudeau’s special adviser in recent months and has long been considered a contender for the top job.

The Harvard graduate has never held public office but has a strong economic background, having held top positions at the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

He also brings expertise on environmental issues through his role as the United Nations’ special envoy for climate action, recently calling the net zero target “the biggest business opportunity of our time”.

Carney is a champion of some Liberal policies that have been unpopular in Canadian conservative circles, such as the federal carbon tax, which critics say is the party’s signature climate policy and imposes a financial burden on Canadians. .

He also criticized Canada’s Conservative leader Pierre Plièvre, saying his vision for the country’s future has “no plan” and is “just slogans.”

“I’m the one in the conversation who actually does the business and makes the decisions,” he said.

Anand is often hailed as one of the most ambitious members of the Liberal caucus.

The 57-year-old lawyer entered politics in 2019, when she was elected to represent the riding of Oakville, just outside Toronto.

She is an Oxford-educated academic with a background in financial markets regulation and corporate governance.

She was immediately given a ministerial briefing for public services and procurement, making her responsible for ensuring the safety of vaccines and personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic.

Anand was subsequently appointed defense minister in 2021, leading Canada’s aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia and overseeing a personnel crisis in the Canadian Armed Forces, which has been embattled by a sexual misconduct scandal.

When Anand was moved out of the department to oversee the Treasury Department, many viewed it as a demotion, and Trudeau’s critics even speculated it was punishment for her ambition to one day lead the party.

In December, she was again transferred to the posts of Minister of Transport and Minister of Domestic Trade in a cabinet reshuffle.

The former businessman and international trade expert is another Liberal minister said to be under consideration for the party’s top job.

But his rise through the ranks was slower than Anand’s.

Champagne, 54, entered the House of Commons in 2015 but has since moved through international trade, foreign affairs and, most recently, innovation, science and industry.

But there are a few things working in his favor. Champagne hails from Quebec, a province whose voice tends to be influential in Canadian federal elections.

He has also been dubbed “Canada’s Energizer Bunny” by some experts who have observed his passion as he travels the world with his innovative portfolio and his mission to sell all Canadian-made products.

Because of his business acumen, political observers see him as a viable option to lure the centrist Liberals back into the fold.

Like Trudeau, Jolly represents a Montreal-area riding.

The 45-year-old is a familiar face to foreign leaders, having represented Canada on the world stage since 2021.

As the current foreign affairs minister, she traveled to Ukraine multiple times to express Canada’s support. When the war between Israel and Hamas broke out, she traveled to Jordan to assist in the evacuation of Canadian citizens from the area.

Jolly has also been at the center of some of the government’s biggest foreign policy challenges, including a diplomatic crisis sparked by accusations that Indian agents assassinated a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil.

The Oxford-educated lawyer is a well-connected French-speaking politician who once ran for mayor of Montreal.

Trudeau personally appointed her to run for federal political office.

“He would call me regularly and say, ‘Melanie, you need to run, we want you to run,'” Jolly said.

Senior advisers have praised her ability to work in rooms of seven or 700 people, and she has long been ambitious in her bid to become Liberal leader, close friends told Canadian magazine Maccleans.

LeBlanc, 57, is one of Trudeau’s closest and most trusted allies.

Their friendship was strong and LeBlanc even looked after Trudeau and his siblings when they were young.

He has a record of stepping in at difficult moments, including becoming finance minister within hours of Freeland’s explosive resignation.

LeBlanc also had the tricky task of accompanying Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump in November.

The former lawyer has been an MP for more than two decades, first elected in 2000 to represent a riding in Atlantic New Brunswick.

Like Trudeau, LeBlanc was born into a political family. His father served as a minister in the cabinet of Trudeau’s legendary father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and later as Governor General of Canada.

LeBlanc has previously shown ambitions to lead the party, running in 2008 but losing to Michael Ignatieff. He did not run again in the next leadership race, which Trudeau won.

He was in remission after cancer treatment and became known as an affable and powerful political communicator.

The former premier of British Columbia has expressed interest in joining the Liberal leadership circle.

She said in a statement in October that she “wants to be part of a conversation about the future direction of the Liberal Party and the country” if Trudeau steps down.

Clark, 59, served as leader of Canada’s westernmost province from 2011 to 2017, where she built a reputation for balancing environmental priorities while growing BC’s energy industry.

She has said repeatedly in interviews over the past few years that Trudeau has become a drag on the federal Liberals.

She has also reportedly been taking French classes, according to Radio-Canada. Fluency in French is considered a prerequisite for Canadian federal politicians.