Smith and Lawless declare intention to stand for Canadian Olympic Committee Presidency

Peter Lawless will stand against Tricia Smith for the COC Presidency ©COC

Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) vice-presidents Tricia Smith and Peter Lawless have each been put forward by the body's Nomination Commission as candidates to replace Marcel Aubut as President at an election due to be held on November 22.

Smith has been leading the COC on an interim basis ever since Aubut stepped down last month following the opening of several investigations into alleged sexual harassment.

A Los Angleles 1984 coxless pairs silver medallist, who is also a vice-president of the International Rowing Federation, the 58-year-old from Vancouver stood unsuccessfully against Aubut for the Presidential position in 2009.

She will face opposition this time around from Lawless, a fellow British Columbia based lawyer, who has years of high performance sport experience as a cycling and athletics coach.

He was also an ombudsperson for Team Canada at the 2015 Toronto Parapan Am Games.

Peter Lawless will stand against interim COC President Tricia Smith ©World Rowing

It is still possible for additional candidates to emerge if they recieve five nominations from other COC-affiliated bodies, with the final deadline for nominations due by Friday (November 6).

An 80-strong electorate will then make a choice at the COC headquarters in Montreal on November 22, insidethegames has been told, with the winner to serve the remainder of Aubut's four-year term, due to expire in April 2017.

This comes after a remarkable month in which Aubut first stood down temporarily following the opening of an investigation by a woman involved in the Canadian Olympic Foundation.

This was later withdrawn, but several more cases soon emerged within and beyond the sports world and the 67-year-old then opted to resign on a permament basis.

Aubut had led the COC through the Pan American Games in Toronto in July and had, at one stage, been tipped to lead a bid from the Canadian city for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics before it was abandoned in September.

He has now ended any involvement in the Olympic Movement, resigning his position on the Association of National Olympic Committees Executive Council here at last week's General Assembly, as well as stepping down from his law firm BCF law firm and taking a "time out" from professional activities.