Former cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland has announced she is running for the Liberal Party leadership with an official campaign launch set for Jan. 19.
Freeland made the announcement in a short statement issued on Jan. 17, which only says: “I’m running to fight for Canada.”
Freeland was widely expected to run and her statement came a day after the other top contender in the race, Mark Carney, launched his campaign on Jan. 16 in Edmonton.
Freeland said last year that she and Carney, former head of the central banks of Canada and the U.K., are longtime friends and that she sought his counsel during her tenure as minister.
Carney was asked by reporters after his campaign launch whether he spoke with Freeland in recent weeks, and why party member should choose him over her, but he didn’t provide a full answer.
“I’m going to make a positive case to choose me,” he said, adding he would compete on the “merits of my experience.”
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A recent poll by Léger suggests Carney is Liberal supporters’ preferred choice for future leader ahead of Freeland.
The ongoing Liberal Party leadership race is in part the result of Freeland’s resignation from cabinet on Dec. 16, hours before she was to deliver the Fall Economic Statement.
In her resignation letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which she made public, Freeland said she had been “at odds” with Trudeau over the management of the country’s finance for a number of weeks.
Freeland also accused the prime minister of using “costly political gimmicks” at a time when the country should be bracing for a trade war with the U.S. The Liberal government’s GST holiday bill had just been adopted.
Freeland’s resignation from the roles of deputy prime minister and minister of finance sent a shockwave through the Liberal caucus. An increasing number of MPs began speaking publicly against Trudeau and eventually entire regional caucuses told the prime minister to step down.
Trudeau announced on Jan. 6 he would resign as party leader and prime minister once the Liberal Party chooses a new leader. He also asked the governor general to prorogue Parliament until March 24.
The Liberal Party said a new leader will be chosen on March 9, providing Trudeau’s replacement two weeks before Parliament resumes with a new session. The government must deliver a Speech from the Throne to outline its agenda as a first order of business when a new session starts.
The tenure of the new Liberal prime minister could be short lived. Opposition parties have stated their intention to vote non-confidence in the government.
Along with Freeland and Carney, other candidates having stated their intention to run include Liberal MP Chandra Arya, Liberal MP Jaime Battiste, and former Liberal MP Frank Baylis. Government House Leader Karina Gould is also expected to enter the race.
A number of potential contenders have already declined to run, including Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Transport Minister Anita Anand, and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.
LeBlanc and Joly said they would use their energy to deal with the tariff threat from the incoming U.S. administration.
Freeland was foreign affairs minister during Donald Trump’s first term, and oversaw the renegotiation of NAFTA and trade retaliation against the U.S. for the imposition of tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.
While she has experience of dealing with the incoming U.S. president, it also comes with baggage.
In reaction to Freeland’s resignation in December, Trump said her behaviour was “totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”
In an op-ed published in the Toronto Star on Jan. 17, Freeland did not discuss her leadership campaign but sent a message to the Trump administration on its tariff threat.
“Being smart means retaliating where it hurts. If President Trump imposes 25 per cent tariffs, our counterpunch must be dollar-for-dollar — and it must be precisely and painfully targeted,” she wrote.
Freeland said Florida orange growers, Michigan dishwasher manufacturers, and Wisconsin dairy farmers could be targeted by retaliatory tariffs.
“If pushed, our response will be the single largest trade blow the U.S. economy has ever endured,” she said.
