Chrystia Freeland has warned of the “existential risk” to Canada posed by Donald Trump, casting herself as a “battle tested leader with the scars to prove it” during the formal launch of her bid to be the country’s next prime minister.
Freeland, who has presented herself as the figure most capable of negotiating with a protectionist and unpredictable White House, held her formal campaign launch the day before the incoming president’s inauguration and pledged “dollar to dollar” retaliation for any tariffs that would amount to the “largest trade blow the US has ever endured”.
Speaking at her campaign launch in Toronto on Sunday, she warned prospective voters that “the stakes are just too damn high”, boasting that Trump disliked her because she had been “fierce, resolute and have been effective in defending Canada”.
As part of a raft of protectionist trade measures, Trump has threatened to hit Canada with 25% tariffs on all goods.
“I have a message for Trump: We are your neighbour and most important trading partner,” said Freeland. “But if the fight comes to our door, just remember we love our country as much as you love yours…. Canada will not escalate. But if I’m prime minister, Canada will never back down.”
Freeland, who took to the stage to the beat of Nelly Furtado’s Maneater, triggered the current leadership race by resigning as the country’s finance minister last month after clashing with the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, over how to handle the looming threat of US tariffs. Her stern rebuke of the prime minister was seen as a trigger for his resignation which came weeks later.
Before that however, she served alongside Trudeau for nearly a decade and occupied the most senior roles in his cabinet. Her close relationship with the former prime minister may become a millstone for her nascent campaign. Trudeau remains deeply unpopular and Freeland’s task is to convince a skeptical public how she would chart a different course than her predecessor.
Her split with the prime minister, even though it has been a foundational aspect of her campaign, was not universally appreciated across the party.
“I don’t like how she treated Trudeau,” said Sandy Hughes, who attended the event but intends to vote for Mark Carney, the former central banker seen as Freeland’s biggest rival. “She didn’t treat Trudeau well. Although to be honest, he didn’t treat her that well either.”
Hughes worried that Canada isn’t yet ready for a woman to serve as the country’s top job and felt Carney’s self-described “outsider” identity would be helpful for a party facing the prospect of electoral disaster.
Sunday’s launch was held at a Toronto youth community centre in a nod to the government policy that cut daycare fees across the country. At one point, pro-Palestine protesters disrupted the event, rushing the stage with a Palestinian flag, and unfurling a banner that described Freeland as a “grave digger”.
Meanwhile, her rival Carney received a key endorsement from foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly, who argued the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England was best suited to deal with the threat of a trade dispute with the United States.
Carney managed the 2008 financial crisis in Canada and the economic challenges that arose after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. The endorsement also gives Carney a prominent supporter in Quebec.
Still, Freeland had Quebec Liberal caucus chair Stéphane Lauzon at her launch. She later told reporters she had held her first campaign event and given her first interview to a French language outlet because she values the importance of French and Quebec identity.
The frontrunners’ contrasting strategies reflected a deep rift within the party over whether the threat of Trump is best handled with a strong negotiator at the helm – or a veteran economist familiar with crises.
The winning candidate must also convince a Liberal government-fatigued public that they would perform better than Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who is on currently track to win the next election and form government.
“The real problem with Pierre Poilievre is that he’s weak. He will never stand up to Donald Trump,” said Freeland. “If he’s elected he’ll be on the first flight to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring. He will bend down and sell us out.”
Angus Tucker, who attended the event, said any Liberal candidate running for the country’s top job would need to address the mounting crises in the country, including cost of living and government spending.
“I’m coming in with an open mind. Now that she’s potentially the person in charge, I want to hear what she has to say about her own record,” he said of the “spending, spending and spending” by the federal government.
“She’s got her work cut out for her.”
