Former finance minister and Liberal leadership hopeful Chrystia Freeland says she’s the best person to stand up to U.S. president Donald Trump when it comes to representing Canada’s interests.
“We need to stand up to Donald Trump and I am the person who can do it,” Freeland told CP24 Breakfast in a sit-down interview Monday, the same day Trump takes office for the second time. “I know how to fight for Canada. I know we need to fight for Canada. I have a plan to fight for Canada, and that’s what we need right now.”
The incoming U.S. president has threatened the country with 25 per cent tariffs on goods exported to the U.S. unless his demands around border security and NATO spending are met.
However reports from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, citing White House sources, suggest that Trump will not impose the sanctions today as some had feared.
Trump ‘does not like weakness’
Freeland said having dealt with Trump during the first renegotiation of NAFTA, she learned some things that give her confidence Canada can negotiate choppy waters with our biggest trading partner once again.
“We need to be strong, smart and united. The key thing is not to be scared,” Freeland said. “What Trump wants is chaos. What he wants is uncertainty. And as a country, we have to say, ‘you know what, we can stand up for ourselves.’”
Borrowing CP24 Meteorologist’s advice to viewers about the frigid weather, Freeland said Canadians “can get through this and we’re tough.”
“I think that is who we are really in our core. And it’s that attitude that we have to bring to this truly challenging situation,” she said.
When it comes to dealing with Trump, Freeland said she learned two important things from her previous experience.
“He does not like weakness. For him, weakness is an invitation to just push harder and ask for more,” she said. “The second thing I learned is if you’re smart, if you have a plan and if the fundamentals are actually good, which is what Canada offers the U.S., you can get a great deal.”
Despite the fact that Trump has spoken critically of Freeland in the past – he wrote on social media that she “won’t be missed” when she resigned – the former finance minister said it’s an advantage that he knows she can’t be “bullied.”
On Sunday Freeland launched her campaign to become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. The winner of that contest is expected to become prime minister and will carry the Liberal banner into an expected spring election.
Other contenders in the race include former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and Liberal House leader Karina Gould.
Carney, for his part, has suggested he is best positioned to get Canada’s economy ‘back on track’ due to his experience as an economist.
“If you wonder why I can succeed where others have failed or will fall short, consider this: I’ve helped manage multiple crises, and I’ve helped save two economies,” Carney said at his campaign launch last week.
Gould, meanwhile, has said that the Liberal party needs a “new generation of leadership.”
“Canadians have lost faith in our party and we have to earn back their trust,” she said in a video announcing her candidacy over the weekend.
On breaking from Trudeau
The race touched off after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this month that he would step down. That announcement followed weeks of turmoil after Freeland’s spectacular public resignation the same day she was set to deliver a major economic update.
In her resignation, she cited increasing disagreement with Trudeau, particularly over a plan to send out $250 cheques to Canadians at a time when the country might need to respond to the tariff threats.
Her resignation also came amid reports that Trudeau was planning to replace her with Carney.
Asked Monday how she might deal with a similar disagreement with her finance minister if she was prime minister, Freeland pulled no punches.
“Well probably I wouldn’t tell my finance minister I was going to fire her the day after she delivered the fall economic statement. I probably wouldn’t say that three days before she’s supposed to deliver it,” she said.
‘Lecturing’ Canadians doesn’t work
She also said she’s found the campaign to become leader “a real liberation” when asked about how she can overcome her close association with Trudeau, whose popularity has tanked over the past year.
In particular, she’s promised to eliminate the consumer-facing portion of the federal carbon tax.
“Democracy is about listening to people. It is not about saying ‘Dear Canadians, dear people of Ontario, you are so wrong.’ To be a good leader, you have to listen to people,” Freeland said. “And that’s what we’ve heard from the people of Ontario and across the country where people have a consumer-facing price on carbon. They’re saying, you know, we don’t like it.”
While she stood side-by-side with Trudeau defending the policy over the past few years, she said that “when you’re in a government, you play with the team” and likened the situation to having a boss you might disagree with, but need to follow anyhow.
“I really think that if you’re in a democracy and you’re not listening to people and you’re lecturing them, that is not going to work,” Freeland said. “And so that is a really important change.”
