Chrystia Freeland at her Campaign Launch. Photo: Supplied
Marco Levytsky, National Affairs Editor
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland launched her campaign for the federal Liberal leadership vowing to fight for Canada, January 19.
“I have always fought for the things I believe in, and for the people I care about.
“For my family.
“For your family.
“For Canada.
“As a student, I fought the KGB until they kicked me out of the Soviet Union.
“As Foreign Minister, I fought for Canadian jobs and Canadian businesses.
“As Finance Minister, I fought for Canadian families.
“And yes, as Deputy Prime Minister, I fought back against the Prime Minister when I knew the time had come to put country first,” she said at the rally held at the St. Alban's boys and girls club in Toronto.
Noting that Donald Trump, who was inaugurated as President of the United States the following day, “has threatened to hit Canada with 25 per cent tariffs on everything we sell to the US”, and “has spoken clearly and repeatedly about making Canada the 51st state,” Freeland said she has a message for him.
“We are your neighbour and your most important trading partner.
“You export more goods to Canada than to China, Japan, the UK, and France combined.
“Canadians and Americans are friends. We are often family.
“We are allies. We have fought shoulder-to-shoulder in two World Wars, in Korea and in Afghanistan.
“We won’t pick a fight with you. We don’t want a fight with you.
“But if the fight comes to our door, remember—we love our country just as much as you love yours.
“Canada is not for sale and our sovereignty is not negotiable… If you hit us, we’ll hit back.
“And I promise, if I’m Prime Minister, that our response to illegal and unjustified tariffs will be dollar-for-dollar retaliation.”
She recalled how she fought back during his first term when he wanted to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“As Foreign Minister, I stood up to Donald Trump. I led the fight to save NAFTA and Canadian jobs, even when the Conservatives wanted me to back down,” she said pledging to “lead a true Canadian response to the threat we now face.”
“We will be united, we will be strong and we will be smart.”
Freeland criticized Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre as weak.
“He’s afraid to fight back against people he admires.
“He’s happy to dunk on Liberals on Twitter, but he will never stand up to Donald Trump.
“He can’t even stand up to Danielle Smith.
“Make no mistake: If Pierre Poilievre is elected, he’ll be on the first flight to Mar-A-Lago to kiss the ring.”
Freeland’s launch was disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters in the crowd who shouted her down with heckling and loud banging.
In a press release, they said they want Canada to impose an arms embargo and cut diplomatic ties with Israel. Freeland responded by recognizing their right to disagree but argued that shouldn’t get in the way of others trying to make a point.
“I am not going to let anyone stop me from working with you, from talking with you, and from talking about how we together are going to stand up for our amazing country,” she said. “There are definitely people who want to stop us, but we are not going to let them.”
At least a dozen hecklers were escorted out.
Freeland and former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carnet are considered to be the front runners in the race to succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Also running are Liberal House Leader Karina Gould, MP Chandra Arya, who represents the Ottawa-area riding of Nepean; former Montreal MP and businessman Frank Baylis; and MP Jaime Battiste, who represents the Nova Scotia riding of Sydney—Victoria.
Candidates must announce their intention by January 23. The cutoff date for registering in the party to be eligible to vote is January 27 and the leader will be elected on March 9. Voter registration is free. According to Section 46 of the Constitution of the Liberal Party of Canada the vote will be “weighted equally for each electoral district in Canada” regardless of how many votes are in each riding. To be eligible, you must be at least 14 years old and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. To register please go to: https://chefferie2025leadership.liberal.ca/
Born in Peace River to an English father and a Ukrainian mother, Freeland became involved with the Ukrainian community very early. After obtaining a USSR press pass based on a letter of accreditation from Ukrainian News in 1989, Freeland cut her journalistic teeth as a Ukraine-based stringer for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist. Working with Bill Keller of The New York Times, she documented the unmarked Bykivnia graves, where the Soviet NKVD secret police disposed of tens of thousands of dissidents. This brought her under the radar of NKVD’s successor, the KGB, which tapped her phone calls and attacked her as a foreigner meddling in their internal affairs over her contacts with Ukrainian activists. She went on to an illustrious career, first at the Financial Times and then The Globe and Mail, where she served as deputy editor between 1999 and 2001. She then returned to the Financial Times as deputy editor and then as U.S. managing editor. In 2010, she joined Canadian-owned Thomson Reuters as a managing director.
She left journalism to enter politics in 2013, winning a by-election to join the Liberal caucus, and with Trudeau’s 2015 victory, she became Minister of International Trade. Freeland was promoted to Foreign Affairs Minister in 2017, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs in 2019. In 2020 she became Canada’s first female Finance Minister while retaining the Deputy PM post.
Throughout her ministerial career she has been a staunch and proactive supporter of Ukraine. As trade minister, she successfully negotiated the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement. Freeland was at the forefront of the Canadian government's response to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022 and was the first to call for sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia, which were eventually imposed. She spoke nearly daily with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and mobilized international support for Ukraine, especially at the G-7 level.
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