Liberals in exile to run as Independent candidates

• Former Liberal cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-raybould and Jane Philpott will run as Independents in this fall’s federal election, they announced Monday.

The pair held separate but co-ordinated announcements in their ridings — Wilson-raybould in Vancouver and Philpott outside Toronto. Both dressed in white, pointedly eschewing any party’s colours.

“I know you’re all wondering what colour I was going to wear today,” Philpott said with a wide grin on her face, on a riser at a farm store.

“I am going to run in the federal election as an Independent candidate for the people of Markham-stouffville. We are going to do it together. Yes. All of us, all of together.”

At a small community centre in her riding of Vancouver Granville, Wilson Raybould told her supporters she’s heard an “overwhelming” message about the need to do politics differently, adding she believes running as Independent is the best way to achieve that goal.

“I know that it will not be easy to run a campaign as an Independent,” she said. “There will be challenges, but with your support, I am confident that running as an Independent is the best way to … go about it at this time and the best way to transform our political culture.”

Philpott acknowledged some will be surprised by her decision but she said running on her own is the most honest thing for her to do.

“There’s probably a few of you who were wishing for something different,” she said. “That’s OK. I heard a whole range of advice.”

The announcements put to rest political speculation about next steps for the two former Liberal cabinet ministers, who were removed from their party caucus following the Snc-lavalin controversy.

Wilson-raybould served as Canada’s first Indigenous justice minister before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled her to the portfolio of veterans affairs in January.

She later revealed she thought the decision to shuffle her was motivated by her refusal to intervene in the criminal prosecution of the Quebec engineering giant Snc-lavalin. She ultimately resigned from cabinet.

Trudeau denied any wrongdoing but conceded there was an “erosion of trust” between his office and Wilson-raybould.

Philpott, who served as health minister, Indigenous-services minister and then president of the Treasury Board, also resigned over Trudeau’s handling of the controversy.

Both were subsequently removed from the Liberal caucus in early April and sit as Independent MPS in the House of Commons. Trudeau barred them from running again as Liberals.

It’s been a challenging five months, Wilson-raybould said.

“I find myself in a place that I never expected to be for, as I’ve said, doing my job and speaking the truth,” she said. “I regret that it has come to this place.”