Voting For The New Liberal Leader Has Begun. Here's How The Process Works | CBC News

Politics·New

Voting in the Liberal leadership contest to select Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s successor is now open.  

Liberals must confirm identity in person at a post office or through the Canada Post Identity+ mobile app

Peter Zimonjic · CBC News

· Posted: Feb 26, 2025 11:46 AM EST | Last Updated: 22 minutes ago

Liberal Party of Canada leadership candidates Karina Gould, Frank Baylis, Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney pose prior to the English-language Liberal leadership debate in Montreal on Tuesday. The federal Liberals will pick a new leader on March 9. Voting began Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)Voting in the Liberal leadership contest that will select Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s successor is now open.  

Registered Liberals have until March 9 at 3 p.m. ET to cast their vote with the expectation that the new Liberal Party of Canada leader will be announced later that day.

The first thing Liberals voting in the leadership contest have to do is verify their eligibility to vote.

To be eligible, voters must have registered as a Liberal before 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 27, 2025.

The Liberal Party says those who met the registration deadline should have received a voter ID by email that they can use to confirm their eligibility. 

Liberals who have not received their voter ID by email can request it by filling out a short online form asking for their email, first name, postal code and date of birth.

Once registered Liberals have their voter ID, they can confirm their eligibility by entering it along with their postal code, date of birth and phone number in the party’s online confirmation tool.  

Once Liberals have their voter ID and have confirmed that they are eligible to vote, they must then verify their identity either through the Canada Post Identity+ mobile app or in person at a participating post office. 

To help people use the mobile app, the Liberal Party has produced a video that will walk them through the process step by step.

Watch | Verifying identity with the Canada Post Identity+ app: 

Registered Liberals using the mobile app are required to begin by entering their email address. Once that’s done, the app will send their email a code that they enter into the app to verify the email address. 

Next, the voter’s picture will be captured automatically through the app. The image will be compared to a driver’s licence or other ID card that the voter must upload after taking a picture of both sides of the document.

Canadian citizens then need to upload an image of their passport to prove citizenship. If they do not have a passport, they can upload other identity documents to confirm registration under the Indian Act or their permanent residency status.

Once their identity has been confirmed and an Identity+ ID created, the voter submits all the information to the Liberal Party for final verification. 

When the party has confirmed a person’s identity and voter ID, they will be sent an email with instructions on how to cast their ballot electronically. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Zimonjic is a senior writer for CBC News. He has worked as a reporter and columnist in London, England, for the Telegraph, Times and Daily Mail, and in Canada for the Ottawa Citizen, Torstar and Sun Media. He is the author of Into The Darkness: An Account of 7/7, published by Random House.