Campaign is about standing up for Canada: Freeland

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on February 13, 2025.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Liberal Party leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland reached out the Herald Wednesday while campaigning in Calgary, to talk about what she intends to do as the next party leader and her hopes of becoming the next Prime Minister of Canada.
When talking about her campaign, Freeland said she is loving it. She said it is a personal liberation for her, and she is enjoying being able to speak in entirely her own voice.
“I’m also really enjoying being able to spend time talking directly with so many liberals across the country and this is a moment when I can really see that our party is being renewed, energized and invigorated,” said Freeland.
 She added that it has been fun to talk to people who are more excited than they have been for a long time in being liberals.  
“On a personal level, it’s an opportunity for me to tell Canadians who I am and where I come from,” said Freeland.  
She explained that she has been in Alberta for a bit already, as she has spent a couple of days at the end of last week in the Peace River area where she is from.  
“That for me was really powerful. To connect with the community I grew up in, to connect with Alberta, to be reminded of how diverse and strong and wonderful our country is. And I think that’s really the message of my campaign and I think that’s the mood of the country right now,” said Freeland.  
She said she believes Canadians recognize that this is a critical moment for Canada. As she believes that Canada is facing an existential crisis right now with the threats from the United States and she thinks as a country, we know that capitulation is not a negotiating strategy, that we must stand up and fight for Canada.  
“I am inspired and energized to see the spontaneous and unanimous recognition of that across the country. And my campaign is about saying that’s right, we do need to stand up for Canada, we need to fight for Canada,” said Freeland.  “I have the plan to do it, I have the experience to do it, because I’ve done it before, and I was successful, and I have the guts to do it.”
 She said this is why she is running to be the leader of the Liberal Party and the next Prime Minister of Canada.
“I think it is tremendously important for us right now as a country to be united and for us to have a Prime Minister who knows that her job would be to unite the country and to govern for the whole country,” said Freeland.
She said her approach has always been to govern for the people who vote for her and also for the people who don’t.
“I have always recognized the importance of Alberta to Canada, and as Prime Minister that is something that I would devote a lot of energy to. We need that more than ever because the way we will succeed with Trump is by being united, strong and smart,” said Freeland.  
She said during the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the federal government efforts in her role as Minister of inter-governmental affairs, she worked with the premiers across the country and was able to develop close relationships with premiers from all political parties.  
“We were successful as the country getting through COVID, because we worked together and we were united and during the first NAFTA negotiations, I had some senior conservatives from Alberta, who were on the team. And that really meant a lot to me,” said Freeland.  
She said it was thanks to that “Team Canada” approach that they were able to be successful in the NAFTA negotiation when the tariffs on steal and aluminum were lifted.
In terms of the tariffs that Trump is treating Canada with, Freeland said it will take guts to fight for Canada, and she is able and willing to do just that.
“The first and most important thing is to have a true Team Canada approach, and that means really listening, working closely with the premiers of the provinces and territories, working closely with business, working closely with labour leaders and indigenous leaders and really building a common approach and a common understanding,” said Freeland.
 She added that it is because of that approach that they won last time and doing that foundational work is essential.  
“The second thing that we need to do is to be strong. Being strong means understanding that capitulation is not a negotiating strategy. That the only thing Trump understands is strength, that we have real leverage,” said Freeland.
 She said Canadians sometimes think that because we are smaller than the United States that we cannot stand up to them, but she believes that is not the right way to think about this.
 “The reality is that Canada actually is the country in the world which has true economic leverage with the United States. We are their largest export by far. Larger than China, Japan, the UK and France combined,” said Freeland.
 She said that means Canada on its own has more leverage versus the United States and all those four countries acting together. And added that because she understood that leverage, was the reason why she succeeded in getting the steel and aluminum tariffs lifted.
“And third, we need to be smart. And being smart is understanding that the tariffs are harmful to the US economy, and it gives us a real opportunity to be smart and surgical in our retaliation,” said Freeland.
 She said that Canada needs to be smart and creative. Do things like impose 100 per cent tariff on Teslas, make the most influential people with Trump recognized that having a fight with Canada is not a good idea.
 “And being smart also means always offering the United States and exit ramp. Always saying a win-win scenario is absolutely possible. Our relationship is balanced and mutually beneficial and we’re really happy to get back to that,” said Freeland.
She added that in order to be able to do all that, the next Prime Minister has to be strong enough to stand up to Donald Trump and she believes that Pierre Poilievre is not able to do so.
 “He cannot stand to Trump because I don’t think he wants to. He is a Trump wannabe. He’s not someone who wants to play for Canada. He wants to be The Apprentice, not the leader who sites for our country. And that’s why I’m running to be the next leader of the Liberal Party and the next Prime Minister,” said Freeland.

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