Freeland announces she will be running for Liberal leadership

Chrystia Freeland is running to be leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Canada.

In a social media post, Freeland confirmed her bid, announcing she’s “running to fight for Canada.” The former deputy prime minister and finance minister will be officially launching her campaign on Sunday.

Freeland has long been looked at as a potential successor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and that speculation ramped up considerably in December, after she quit his cabinet in a dramatic fashion, posting a scathing resignation letter citing disagreement with Trudeau on several policies.

A source close to Freeland told CTV News earlier this week that the former senior cabinet minister will make scrapping the consumer carbon tax one of her campaign policy planks, after standing by the policy and its accompanying carbon rebate, for years.

She is also expected to focus her bid considerably on the her ability to manage the Canada-U.S. relationship. With U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariff threat looming, Freeland’s Sunday launch – one day before Trump’s inauguration – is expected to include her revealing her first policy plank and dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs.

In a new op-ed published Friday in the Toronto Star, Freeland sent a message to Trump: “We won’t back down.”

“Our counterpunch… must be precisely and painfully targeted,” Freeland writes. “If pushed, our response will be the single largest trade blow the U.S. economy has ever endured.”

As part of Freeland’s Friday soft-launch of her leadership bid – one day after perceived fellow front-runner Mark Carney launched his campaign – her team debuted a new website and social media account. Called “FreelandHQ” it is styled similarly to the “KamalaHQ” accounts active during Democrat Kamala Harris' ultimately unsuccessful U.S. presidential election bid.

The “X” account features Trump’s tweet about her resignation as the banner image.

“The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau. Her behaviour was totally toxic, and not at all conductive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!” is the post Freeland’s team has opted to highlight, a potential indication she’s ready to take her personal clashes with Trump head-on.

Cabinet ministers Mark Holland and Diane Lebouthillier are endorsing Freeland, along with several MPs including Anthony Housefather, Ben Carr, Rob Oliphant and Randy Boissonnault.

Freeland, who formerly worked as a journalist, was first elected to parliament in 2013 in a byelection to replace Bob Rae in the riding of Toronto Centre. In the 2015 federal election, she won the University-Rosedale riding for the Liberals and was appointed to Trudeau’s cabinet. She held multiple portfolios in the Trudeau government, including international trade, foreign affairs, intergovernmental affairs and finance. Trudeau also appointed her as deputy prime minister after the 2019 general election.

Freeland also has extensive experience in trade dealings with Trump. During the president-elect’s first term in office, Freeland led Canada’s renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which later became the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.