Wannabe Trudeau Successor Chrystia Freeland Threatens Trump in Washington Post: ‘We Will Hit Back’

Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland penned a somewhat humorous, but also rather menacing, op-ed for the Washington Post on Sunday in which she warned incoming President Donald Trump not to “doubt Canada’s resolve.”

Freeland’s piece was meant as a gentle-but-firm refusal of Trump’s notion that Canada should become the 51st of the United States, although her tone occasionally grew a bit snotty for the “let’s just be friends” message she was ostensibly transmitting to American readers:

We admire so many things about you: your spirit of enterprise, your love of freedom, your embrace of change. We share those qualities — along with a universal, single-payer health-care system, $10-a-day child care, gun control and abortion rights.
We are proud to be a bilingual country, which includes the distinct society of Quebec — the only majority-French-speaking jurisdiction in North America. We are committed to reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples who have been here from time immemorial, and we believe in a multicultural society, rather than a melting pot.
Some of you don’t like our way of life. That’s fine. We aren’t asking you to become Canadian. But we do expect you to respect who we are and our long history of friendship with the United States.

Trump largely seemed to enjoy the 51st-state routine as a means of belittling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who effectively announced his resignation two weeks ago but remains in office as a “caretaker” until the Canadian parliament returns to session in March. The meat of Freeland’s op-ed concerned Trump’s tariff threat against Canada unless it does a better job of securing its border – a threat Freeland claimed Canada is ready to meet head-on.

“The threats won’t work. We will not escalate, but we will not back down. If you hit us, we will hit back – and our blows will be precisely targeted. We are smaller than you, to be sure, but the stakes for us are immeasurably higher. Do not doubt our resolve,” she growled.

“Loyalty works only if it is reciprocal. If you choose to treat us like an adversary, we will find friends who know just how much we have to offer,” she muttered.

Freeland probably feels the need to talk like this because her old boss Trudeau, already deeply unpopular with Canadian voters after years of policy disasters, was finally undone by the perception that he was too weak and insubstantial to deal with the second Trump administration.

Trudeau forced Freeland out of office shortly before his resignation over a disagreement on government spending, a move that did not do the embattled prime minister any favors, since Freeland had previously been one of his strongest advocates.

Freeland kicked off her campaign to replace Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada on Sunday. The event did not go terribly well, as she found herself grappling with several hecklers, including pro-Hamas activists.

Another former minister, Karina Gould, threw her hat into the increasingly crowded ring on the same day, but the early favorite for Liberal Party leadership seems to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly endorsed Carney shortly before Freeland gave her first campaign speech. Joly said the timing was driven by Trump’s impending inauguration, not a desire to undercut Freeland’s leadership campaign.

“During times of crisis, governments of all stripes turn to Mark, including during the 2008 global economic crisis and Brexit. He has a clear vision for a better and greener future for all of us and a clear plan to implement it,” Joly said.

CBC News noted that Joly’s wing of the Liberal Party, which is strong in Quebec, has “doubts about Freeland’s ability to distance herself enough from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s legacy, having been his finance minister for over four years.”

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) found some pathos in Freeland running a tough leadership campaign against Carney, an old friend who is the godfather of her son.

The two candidates come from similar political and educational backgrounds, but Carney has the tremendous advantage of not being so closely associated with Justin Trudeau – although he had a close call because Trudeau reportedly intended to give him Freeland’s old job as finance minister after forcing her out of office.

“I’m not the only Liberal in Canada who believes that the prime minister and his team let their attention wander from the economy too often. I will not lose focus. Our growth has been too slow. People’s wages are too low. The federal government spends too much, but it invests too little. Middle-class taxes are too high,” Carney said, obliquely distancing himself from the former deputy prime minister without calling her out by name.

The WSJ quoted analysts who said Freeland and Carney probably both know they do not stand a chance against Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who is currently polling more than twenty points higher than a Liberal Party that might be sliding into third place behind the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP).

Instead, Freeland and Carney are competing to “rebuild the post-Trudeau party and prepare for another election later this decade.” Carney is currently polling about six points ahead of Freeland among Liberals, although she does slightly better than him among the general Canadian electorate.