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Hall Findlay is one of six leadership contenders who currently have no seat in the House of Commons. Only three — Justin Trudeau, Marc Garneau and Joyce Murray — are sitting MPs.

She also weighed in on the aboriginal protests that have rocked the country, urging police to do their jobs to break up illegal demonstrations and calling on Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence to end her month-long hunger protest.

Hall Findlay won the Toronto riding of Willowdale in a 2008 byelection and was re-elected in a general election later that year. But she lost to Conservative Chungson Leung in the 2011 election, when the Liberals were reduced to a third-party rump with only 34 seats.

Should she win the leadership, Hall Findlay said it “would not be the preference” to remain out of the Commons for an extended period. But precisely how and when she’d find a seat would “have to be determined at the time.”

Ideally, she’d “love to run again in Willowdale” but she acknowledged Leung is unlikely to step aside to accommodate her.

Former prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien were elected leader of the Conservatives and Liberals respectively, without having a seat. In each case, they persuaded one of their sitting MPs to step aside temporarily, allowing the leader to run in a byelection in a safe riding.

That could prove more difficult for the next Liberal leader since there are so few sitting Liberal MPs and even fewer ridings that could be deemed safe for the party.