OTTAWA — When former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland enters her campaign rallies in her bid to become the next Liberal leader, speakers always blare Nelly Furtado’s 2006 hit “Maneater.”
It is a nod to the central theme of her pitch to the country: she will not shy away from taking on powerful men.
With just one week left before the race concludes, that message is front and centre as she declares that her political experience makes her “uniquely qualified” for the challenges facing Canada today.
Those challenges have increased since she launched her leadership bid in mid-January, and she now calls the battle ahead the “greatest threat since the Second World War.” With polls and fundraising pointing to former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney as the front-runner, Freeland still sees a possible path to victory in a race that, much like global politics as a whole, has been dominated by the disruptive decisions of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“I know President Trump. I fought for Canada in the first Trump administration, and I got a good deal for Canada,” Freeland said in an interview with The Canadian Press from Edmonton where she was holding a rally on Saturday night.
“I’ve been trade minister, and I’ve been foreign minister and finance minister. And I understand the severity of the challenge we face today.” Freeland was the foreign affairs minister for the first three years of Trump’s last term in the White House, and led Canada’s team negotiating the updated Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.
This time Trump has raised the stakes, threatening economy-wide tariffs on all Canadian imports and repeatedly insisting Canada would be better off it allowed itself to be annexed by the United States.
Trump also appears ready to break old alliances with friendly gestures to Russia, while that country — along with China — increases their posture in the Arctic. own industries and our own defence by investing in them,” she said…Source: ctvnews.ca/
Monday, April 20, 2026
