Liberal party members are gathering in Montreal and, for the first time in more than a decade, Justin Trudeau and his personal brand of politics won't tower over the party's proceedings.
This time, party faithful are meeting as Mark Carney's ever-expanding big tent of MPs stands on the cusp of achieving a majority government after a series of floor crossings in Parliament.
The convention, which runs Thursday through Saturday, starts just ahead of three byelections set for Monday, and a day after a fifth opposition MP crossed the floor to join the Liberal caucus.
It comes at a high point for the Liberals, who a little more than a year ago felt like they were marching their way out of office. Polling aggregator 338 Canada has the Liberals at a staggering 45 per cent support nationally.
"There's strong support across the country right now for the prime minister and for the party," said Jonathan Kalles, a consultant with McMillan Vantage who formerly served as Quebec adviser to Trudeau.
"It's not about patting themselves on the back, but momentum and energy are important in a political party. Right now the Liberals have it, so it's an opportune time to get everyone together."
While Carney handily took the party's helm at a leadership convention in Ottawa last year, the last party policy convention was held in 2023 — when Trudeau issued a rebuttal to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's claims that the Liberals were too "woke" and were ignoring the real challenges facing Canadians.
Then the Liberals ousted Trudeau and won the 2025 election, and Poilievre lost four of his own caucus members to Carney, who pointed to his economic agenda as a reason to switch.
Carney is set to address the convention on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET — the first time he has done so since winning the leadership.
Kalles said many at the party level still know little about Carney and the convention offers a way for them to get to know him, and for party brass to check the pulse of the grassroots.
That's going to become increasingly important as the party gets more diverse and more challenging to manage, with MPs from widely different political backgrounds assembling under the Team Carney banner.
"With people that have such diverse points of view and are fairly ideological, that becomes a challenge. Most Liberals may lean one side or the other, but I would say they are not particularly ideological," Kalles said. "I don't know that it's sustainable in the long term."
Cameron Ahmad, a former director of communications in Trudeau's PMO, said five months of floor crossers in Parliament sends "a really strong signal that the party is doing well" and shows the party remains an "inclusive and welcoming place."
Ahmad said Carney has re-energized the party and he remembers feeling a similar electricity in the air when Trudeau was first elected leader.
"There was such a breath of fresh air into the party and people felt like there was a renewal," Ahmad said.
Liberal party national director Azam Ishmael boasted Thursday that the party expects a "record-breaking number" of supporters to attend the convention — around 4,500 members. The Liberal party said in 2023 the convention that year saw "over 4,000" attend, though it did not release an exact figure.
Zita Astravas, a consultant with Wellington Advocacy and Trudeau's former director of issues management, said Liberals from across the country are "feeling pretty good" right now.
“There’s a spring in people’s steps being a Liberal in politics right now," she said.
The party needs just two more seats to govern with a clear majority, and it's all but certain to get them.
Two of the byelections are Toronto-area seats considered safe for the Liberals, while the third is a hot contest with the Bloc Québécois for Terrebonne — an off-island Montreal suburb that's conspicuously close to where the party convention is being held.
The party machine is expected to crank out a steady stream of canvassers and several francophone cabinet ministers have already knocked on doors in the riding.
But after the latest floor crossing, the byelections are no longer make-or-break for Carney. The Liberals now face what looks like an easy path to a 173-seat majority in the 343-seat House of Commons as of Monday.
Two of the more recent floor crossers, Liberal MPs Lori Idlout and Matt Jeneroux, are speaking on convention panels this week.
Other guest speakers at the convention include Carney's wife Diana Fox, accessibility activist and former athlete Rick Hansen, and Yoshua Bengio, one of the godfathers of artificial intelligence, who is slated to appear on a panel with AI Minister Evan Solomon.
Several top cabinet ministers are also scheduled for panel talks. Friday's panel on Carney's economic agenda and Buy Canadian policies includes Canada-U.S. Relations Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Finance Minister François‑Philippe Champagne and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
