With the federal election campaign underway, Mark Carney will be seeking a seat as a Liberal MP in the House of Commons to represent the Ottawa riding of Nepean.
The Liberal party confirmed the move on social media late Saturday.
The Nepean riding has been held by Liberal MP Chandra Arya for the last decade, but the party recently revoked his nomination.
The 62-year-old has represented the city’s Nepean seat since 2015. The decision to remove him comes almost two months after the party also told Arya it would not accept him as a candidate for the leadership.
National campaign director Andrew Bevan informed Arya in a letter today, just days before the election call.
Arya had already been nominated, but the letter says new information obtained by the party’s “green light committee” led the campaign co-chair to recommend that his “status as a candidate” be revoked.
Bevan does not include any details about the new information.
Arya, who shared the letter on his Facebook page, says being an MP was the “responsibility of my life.”
“While this news is deeply disappointing, it does not diminish the profound honour and privilege it has been to serve the people of Nepean — and all Canadians — as their Member of Parliament since 2015,” he wrote.
Carney will be running in a riding adjacent to his main rival, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, who is seeking re-election in the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney triggered the campaign midday Sunday by visiting Gov. Gen. Mary Simon and asking her to dissolve Parliament and set an election for April 28. Speaking outside Rideau Hall following that meeting, Carney said he is offering solutions rather than anger and division.
The election call means the House of Commons won’t return to work on Monday as scheduled.
The election comes as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten Canada’s sovereignty and pursues a trade war by levying steep tariffs on Canadian goods.
Canada has fought back with retaliatory tariffs, and one of the key ballot questions is certain to be which party, and party leader, is best equipped to confront Trump’s aggressive trade agenda.
Justin Trudeau’s resignation as Liberal leader and prime minister, his replacement by Carney, and Trump’s return to the White House have upended the Canadian political scene — largely eliminating the substantial polling lead the Conservatives enjoyed as recently as January and compelling Carney, Singh and Poilievre to adjust their messaging.
