Marc Garneau is dropping out of the race to lead the federal Liberal Party, saying the odds were long but not impossible when he started.
The former astronaut and MP for Montreal's Westmount-Ville-Marie riding will support his MP colleague Justin Trudeau.
"It's a fait accompli," Garneau said of Trudeau winning the leadership race.
"I cannot see the numbers changing because he has an overwhelming lead."
The odds were long but not impossible when he entered the race, Garneau said. He pointed to internal polling showing he is running second, although others have said he is in third or fourth place.
It's time for the party to move forward, Garneau said, speaking to reporters in Ottawa Wednesday.
Thursday is the last day for supporters to register to vote. By Monday night, less than a third of those signed up with the party had registered to vote in the leadership contest.
Trudeau's campaign team wrote the Liberal Party Monday to ask it to extend the deadline for supporters to register by mail to vote. Several other campaigns, including Garneau's, yesterday said they supported the move.
It may have been the first sign that Garneau was considering dropping out of the Liberal leadership race and supporting front-runner Trudeau.
Garneau challenged Trudeau
Yet Garneau's support of Trudeau is somewhat of a surprise, given that Garneau suggested strongly the Liberal MP from Papineau lacked substance and didn't have the resume to be a leader and compete against Stephen Harper.
"The leadership of the Liberal party is too important a position to be handed to an untested candidate who is hiding behind a carefully crafted public relations campaign," Garneau said at a press conference Feb. 25, referring to Trudeau.
Garneau had also challenged Trudeau to a one-on-one debate.
All along, Garneau has been wary about revealing how many supporters he had personally signed up, and how much money he has been fundraising, other than to say it would be revealed "in due course."
However the claim from the Trudeau camp that its campaign has garnered more than 160,000 supporters was an indicator of how far Trudeau has pulled ahead of other candidates, as well as the amount of money he has raised.
Elections Canada reported on its website last month that Trudeau had fundraised in excess of $600,000. Since then, estimates have ranged from $1 million to $2 million, far more than he needs to run his campaign. The excess money will be funnelled back to the Liberal Party.
Lately, there have been indications that Garneau, if he were to stay in the race, might place third after MP Joyce Murray. Murray is said to be attracting large numbers of supporters due to her pitch for electoral co-operation with the NDP and the Green Party.
The results of the leadership race will be announced in Ottawa on April 14. Voting will take place April 7-14.
Garneau was first elected in 2008.
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