Mark Carney to Run in Ottawa Area Riding of Nepean

On what is likely the eve of an election announcement we now know where the current Prime Minister will be running

As most people are well aware by now, in Canada, voters do not vote for their Prime Minister. They vote for their Member of Parliament, and then the party with the majority of seats in Parliament forms the government, which usually means the party leader becoming Prime Minister. If you happen to live in the riding of Nepean, you will have the opportunity to vote directly for Mark Carney as your Member of Parliament in the next election. There was some speculation that he might run in Edmonton previously.

The current incumbent, Chandra Arya, who has represented the riding since 2015, has been unceremoniously removed. Arya was also blocked from running in the Liberal Party leadership race as the party deemed him "manifestly unfit". Mark Carney went on to win that leadership race with an overwhelming majority of the roughly 150,000 votes cast by the party’s 400,000 members.

Arya posted an image of the letter he received from the party, which informed him of the revocation of his candidacy. The letter cited a “review of new information” as the reason, but did not elaborate on what that information was.

There has been some speculation that the Prime Minister might be required to reveal more information about his assets upon becoming a Member of Parliament. However, since his assets have already been put into a blind trust, he will not have to make any of the same disclosures that most elected members make.

The Prime Minister has had a busy first week on the job, announcing several new policies. These include reducing the consumer carbon tax to zero, removing the capital gains tax increase, and removing GST on homes for first-time home buyers.

The next federal announcement is widely expected to be made on Sunday, setting a date of April 28th.