Freeland Opens Canada Campaign With Message She Can Fight Trump
(Bloomberg) -- Chrystia Freeland formally kicked off her campaign to lead Canada on Sunday, telling supporters that she’s the best candidate to do battle with US President-elect Donald Trump.
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The former finance minister is entering the race to helm the governing Liberal Party and replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation on Jan. 6. She’s seen as a top contender alongside Mark Carney, a former central banker.
Freeland has vowed to fight for Canada, including using counter-tariffs to exert economic pressure on the US, where Trump will take office on Monday. He has threatened to levy steep tariffs on Canadian goods, potentially harming the economy.
“If you hit us, we’ll hit back,” Freeland said in a speech at a Toronto youth club, promising “dollar-for-dollar” retaliation on US tariffs that would “inflict the biggest trade blow that the United States has ever endured.”
Shortly before Freeland’s speech, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly endorsed Carney for the party leadership. Joly is the most senior cabinet minister in Trudeau’s government to publicly back one of the candidates.
Her speech was repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, one of whom briefly displayed a Palestinian flag on stage. Later, pressed by a reporter, she said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the ceasefire in Gaza, and that the war had been “absolutely heartbreaking.”
Canada’s Liberal government has tried to strike a balance on the conflict by supporting Israel’s right to defend itself while advocating for it to use maximum restraint to avoid civilian deaths in Gaza.
Freeland also promised to replace the carbon tax with a different policy to fight climate change. “In provinces where there is a carbon tax, there are people who don’t like that, so we have to listen to that and change it,” she said.
Freeland, 56, effectively forced Trudeau’s departure after her own public resignation in December led to a wider revolt within the Liberal caucus. The split was primarily due to disagreement over fiscal responsibility, she told reporters at Sunday’s event. Party members will choose a new leader on March 9.
If Freeland wins, she’d be the first woman to lead Canada’s Liberals and the second female prime minister of the country. A general election, which is likely to follow soon after the Liberal contest is concluded, will see poll-favorite Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party leader, challenge Freeland for the country’s highest political office.
Government House Leader Karina Gould also announced her candidacy over the weekend in a social media post.
--With assistance from Laura Dhillon Kane.
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