Chrystia Freeland will run to be next Liberal leader

OTTAWA — Chrystia Freeland is running to be the next leader of the Liberal party and prime minister of Canada.

“I’m running to fight for Canada,” she said in the one-sentence statement.

Freeland wrote an op-ed in the Toronto Star on Friday saying she we won’t back down from Donald Trump as he vows to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all products coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico.

Freeland was a key player in responding to Trump tariffs during his first term in the White House. As the minister of foreign affairs she oversaw a dollar-for-dollar tariff response to Trump’s imposition of import taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum in 2018.

The former finance minister is also expected to come out against consumer carbon pricing — a key policy of her own Liberal government.

She resigned resigned from cabinet Dec. 16 after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told her he was replacing her as finance minister, with Carney. The move and resulting criticism led Trudeau to announce he would step down as soon as a new leader is chosen.

So far Freeland and Carney are the highest-profile candidates in the race, which is expected to get more crowded soon. Government House leader Karina Gould is expected to launch her campaign in the coming days and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has also indicated he will soon announce his final decision on whether he’ll run.

Potential candidates have less than a week left to decide if they will enter the race, which will conclude March 9.

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