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OTTAWA, March 14, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In announcing his withdrawal from the Liberal Party leadership race yesterday, Marc Garneau threw his support behind Justin Trudeau, a Trudeau triumph is inevitable.

“It is my opinion now, based on internal analysis, that the party has chosen,” Garneau told reporters during a news conference on Parliament Hill following the announcement that he had thrown in the towel.

“As far as I am concerned, it’s a fait accompli. I cannot see the numbers changing because he has an overwhelming lead,” he said.

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Garneau, who holds a doctorate in electrical engineering as well as being an astronaut, added, “I’m a person who believes in math — I cannot mathematically win.”

“I will support the leader and that leader will be Justin Trudeau,” Garneau stated.

Garneau’s departure leaves seven candidates from the original nine vying for the party’s leadership. However, the other candidates have proven to be not so easily cowed by the odds.

Vancouver MP Joyce Murray, who according to an internal poll of 6,000 Liberals cited by Garneau as the “numbers” that led to his withdrawal, reportedly has the support of 7.4 percent of registered voters, compared to Garneau's 15 percent and Trudeau's 72 percent. She is hoping to win over Garneau supporters by pointing out that Garneau offered a “substantive vision for the country,” compared to Trudeau's campaign platform.

“In steadfastly promoting a substantive vision for the country, Marc contributed greatly to this leadership contest,” Murray said in a press release.

Murray also cast doubt on the poll numbers that Garneau cited, telling CTV's PowerPlay they were taken from a robocall survey.

Contender Martha Hall Findlay was even more direct in her praise of Garneau, noting that he, as well as she herself, was “serious, substantive, [and] experienced,” and that she would continue her campaign to win.

“My campaign continues,” she said. “Marc represented a serious, substantive, experienced choice for the party, as do I.”

Earlier in the leadership race Garneau had criticized Trudeau's campaign as being big on charisma but light on policy.

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Jonathan Kay of the National Post remarked that, “Garneau called out frontrunner Justin Trudeau, in measured tones, for running a policy-free campaign.”

Kay pointed out that he believes Garneau's withdrawal is both the loss of a good leader for the Liberal Party and proves that “Canadians don’t want smart candidates with good ideas”.

Garneau “boasted a genuinely impressive resumé, including a doctorate in electrical engineering,” Kay observed, adding, “Everyone knows Garneau went into space. But did you know that he also personally designed the simulator software used to train naval officers to run on-board missile systems? And he credibly promised to use that expertise to promote the advancement of Canadian science and technology. Even his physical appearance — the epitome of pleasant-looking, middle-aged blandness — was in keeping with his insistence on policy and platform above all else”.

“Pity Marc Garneau,” Kay concluded. “We said we wanted a serious intellectual promoting serious policy ideas. He was brilliant enough to fit the role perfectly. And naïve enough to think we actually meant it”.

While some pundits have said that the Liberal Party of Canada has become irrelevant with its staggering losses to the NDP in the last election, so the new leader, by extension, is also irrelevant, pro-life leaders have warned that because of his charisma and popularity, a win by Trudeau could result in a renewed bout of Trudeaumania that will damage the cause to protect Canada’s unborn.

Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition, said that the candidacy for Liberal Party leadership of the eldest son of Canada’s most polarizing Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, is a threat to pro-life and pro-family causes because of his hardline stances in favour of abortion-on-demand and same-sex “marriage”.

“Even though he has little experience, he’s a lightweight in terms of politics, it will not deter a lot of people who will get on his bandwagon because of charisma, cult of personality, and all these different things. He plays the game well”, Hughes explained.

Gwen Landolt, National Vice-President of REAL Women Canada, said Trudeau lacks the strong background and thought-out policy positions normally expected of party leaders.

“All we know is that he’s sort of a knee-jerk left-wing liberal, on same-sex ‘marriage’, abortion-on-demand, but he doesn’t seem to have any in-depth analysis on any issue,” she explained.

“If the Liberals think that Justin Trudeau’s going to solve their problems, they’re very naïve,” Landolt added. “Charisma isn’t going to solve the problem.”