At her official launch event held Sunday, Jan. 19 more than a dozen protestors interrupted Chrystia Freeland’s address. The packed event was held in the gymnasium of the Annex-based St. Alban’s Boys and Girls Club. The protestors displayed flags and banners relating to the war in Gaza. They were quickly escorted out of the gym by staff one by one. 

Freeland is the member of Parliament for University-Rosedale and until recently the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister. She resigned from those portfolios in December. Her quitting the cabinet in a dramatic fashion may have been the final straw, forcing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to announce his resignation pending a leadership contest. The winner will automatically become prime minister and face a combative Parliament keen on a federal election and an aggressive U.S. president threatening a trade war with Canada and Mexico.

Freeland, who stood her ground against the disruptions, said “we welcome different points of view, but this is not okay. It’s not okay to disrupt Canadian democracy.” Eventually, she was able to return to her remarks where she made her pitch to become Liberal leader and prime minister, claiming that she is “battle-tested with the scars to prove it” for a trade war with Donald Trump. Freeland led Canada’s negotiating team during Trump’s first term in office when the North American Free Trade Agreement was in jeopardy. 

If Trump fulfills his promise to add a 25 per cent tariff to all goods coming into the United States from Canada, “we will deliver a dollar-for-dollar retaliation” she said. “If you hit us, we will hit back. We love our country as much as you love yours.”

Freeland’s main rival to replace Trudeau is Mark Carney, who is the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

—Brian Burchell/Gleaner News