Only a day after Conservatives won a federal byelection in the longtime Liberal stronghold of Toronto-St. Paul’s, ending a race that was largely viewed as a referendum on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership at the head of the governing party, a new potential contender says he is considering a bid to replace him.
Former Liberal MP Frank Baylis confirmed to CBC News he has been approached for a leadership run.
“A number of people are asking me to think about this, and I’m taking their request seriously,” Baylis said in an interview.
“It’s been a long time, there’s been a demand, there’s been an interest in having a more centrist viewpoint, a more fiscally responsible approach, and with my background in business, many people have approached me and talked to me about this.”
Baylis represented Pierrefonds-Dollard, another riding considered one of the safest in the country for the Liberals, on Montreal’s West Island, from 2015 to 2019. He stepped down that year.
He is the executive chairperson of Baylis Medical Tech, a company he sold to a larger American firm, Boston Scientific, for $1.75 billion US in 2022.
He insisted he has made no firm decision, but has been watching the fallout from the byelection result closely.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he and his Liberal team have ‘much more work to do,’ following the loss of a Liberal seat in the Toronto-St.Paul’s riding.
“This was a very, very decisive defeat, from a [previous] very strong victory,” Baylis said, adding he understood the frustration of Liberal MPs who are concerned about their chances at reelection.
“Prime Minister Trudeau will decide what he wants to do if and when he decides to do that, that’s his prerogative,” Baylis said.
He added only then would he decide his own next steps.
On Tuesday, Trudeau addressed the byelection results but gave no indication he was thinking of stepping down.
“I and my entire team have much more hard work to do to deliver tangible, real progress that Canadians can see and feel,” he said.
Two Liberal MPs, speaking to CBC News on the condition they not be named, said they have heard of Baylis considering a leadership run.
“This has been an open secret,” said one MP, who said Baylis had been one of the best new Liberal parliamentarians for the term he was elected to public office.
The MP said Baylis’s name has floated around for years, though also added “at a time like this, I don’t think he has the necessary experience.”
Another Liberal MP said they personally advised Baylis to seriously start thinking about mounting a national campaign.
“[Baylis] was hoping he had about two years left,” this MP said. “His plan was to ramp it up over time and not be ready just now.”
Nobody has publicly thrown their hat into the ring with definite plans to replace Trudeau, though former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney has not ruled it out, and the Globe and Mail has reported Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc was eyeing the position.
Baylis a staunch opponent of Quebec secularism law
Though he has stayed largely out of the public eye after leaving office, Baylis has been a staunch opponent of Bill 21, the controversial Quebec legislation that bars public sector workers in positions of authority from wearing overt religious symbols such as hijabs or yarmulkes at their jobs, for the sake of secularism.
He is the co-president of Non à la Loi 21 (No to Law 21), one of many organizations hoping to fight the legislation at the Supreme Court of Canada.
The law remains popular in Quebec, a province that is key to the Liberal Party’s fortunes in federal elections. However, Baylis said he was not concerned about openly challenging its discriminatory nature.
“Too many times I see, in all politics, people are making this kind of political calculation: what will get me votes versus what’s the right thing to do,” he said, adding he is convinced most Quebecers would side against the law if they understood its negative societal impacts.
He said his mother, Gloria Baylis, a Black woman from Barbados, made history as the first person to win a racial discrimination lawsuit against an employer in Canada in 1965.
Controversy at company
Baylis faced controversy shortly after he stepped down from office.
In December 2020, he testified before a Parliamentary Committee about his company Baylis Medical Tech taking part in a consortium that received $237 million from the federal government to procure 10,000 ventilators during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He defended the contract, saying the ventilators the company helped build have since been in demand in other countries, such as Pakistan, India and Ukraine.
“It’s about having Canadian industry step up when there’s a crisis,” he said.
He said he would not be surprised if political opponents try to attack him over the procurement. “That’s OK. I’m a big boy, this is politics, I understand that,” he said.
But he insisted he would tell Canadians the truth about the ventilators, pointing to an award he received from an NGO for donating medical equipment to Ukraine.