Talk:Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

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A note about numbering

While George Brown and Edward Blake (in his first stint) were the leading Liberals of their day, the position of "party leader" was not yet properly established. So while it makes sense to include them in this list due to their prominence, they should be unnumbered — with the count starting at Alexander Mackenzie, the first to be formally recognized as leader.

While it may seem strange for Brown, a founder of the party, to be "unofficial", Parlinfo's page on the Liberal Party lists Mackenzie as the first leader, omitting both Brown and Blake's first stint. Likewise, Brown's own profile does not list any leadership experience. This points to leadership of the party initially being informal and unofficial. Note that this can't simply be because Brown did not have a seat at the time: the Parlinfo page for the Bloc Quebecois duly lists Martine Ouellet as their leader from 2017 to 2018 despite not holding a seat in the Commons, so there's no reason they couldn't do the same for Brown.

As supporting evidence, this article from the CBC says It would be a true surprise now if Carney did not somehow become the 14th leader in the history of the Liberal Party (emphasis mine), and repeats this count in a second article after he won. This count only adds up if starting from Mackenzie. — Kawnhr (talk) 19:48, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]