Mark Carney speaks during the first of the two nights of the Liberal Leadership Debate at the MELS studios in Montreal, Feb. 24, 2025.CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/AFP/Getty Images
We should have guessed that U.S. President Donald Trump would redouble his threat to impose tariffs on Canada on the day the Liberal Party held its first leadership debate.
It’s not that Mr. Trump was paying attention – of course not – but he is the elephant of chaos on the planet and from time to time his bleating trunk crashes into Canadian politics.
That’s been a good thing for the Liberal Party, and especially for its leading contender, Mark Carney, who gets high marks in opinion polls for his perceived ability to cope with Mr. Trump’s threats. But Chrystia Freeland had expected that issue – now the issue – to be hers.
“Because I’ve done it before,” Ms. Freeland said, jumping in first to answer a question.
Chrystia Freeland speaks during a press conference following the first night of the Liberal Leadership Debate.ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images
Ms. Freeland showed up to show off her resumé as the lead minister in renegotiating the North American free-trade agreement during Mr. Trump’s first term as president, and argued that it makes her the person to take him on now. She did it over and again.
In fact, her opening statement told the story of an (apparently precocious) four-year-old girl from Saskatoon named Ari, who asked her if she could stop Mr. Trump from invading Canada. Ms. Freeland told listeners that was the right question, because, she said, Mr. Trump represents the greatest danger to Canada since the Second World War.
A high-stakes issue then, one that might have sparked some burning debate if only the four candidates on the stage – including Burlington MP Karina Gould and Montreal businessperson Frank Baylis – could stop agreeing so much with each other.
Karina Gould speaks during a press conference following the first night of the Liberal Leadership Debate.ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images
They agreed that they are proud with the way Canadians are “standing up” against Mr. Trump’s threats, and that Conservative Pierre Poilievre is just like the U.S. President and absolutely the wrong person to deal with him, and that the whole country has to work together to meet the challenge. And all that agreement was doing Ms. Freeland no good at all.
She’s behind in the race, and she needed a big moment here. She’d spent the whole campaign selling herself as someone who stands up to Mr. Trump, but it hasn’t put her in the lead. Mr. Carney has become the front-runner by painting himself as the economic manager who will get Canada through it – not so much by jousting with Mr. Trump as by bolstering the economy through the challenge. He did it again during Monday’s debate. He held his own on the big issue.
It’s not that Mr. Carney didn’t have a lot of weaknesses in this debate. He did. His French was weak. He spoke in halting sentences that just barely got his points across – most of the time.
The undisputed gaffe of the night came in exchanges on the Middle East when, amid all the candidates agreeing with each other, Mr. Carney’s stated that “we agree with Hamas” – and when Ms. Freeland contradicted him, he hurriedly injected “Against! Against.”
The former central banker’s performance in French should make Liberals worry about how he would fare in a French debate on the same stage as Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and whether he could hold his own against Mr. Poilievre.
But in this in-the-family debate, he probably squeaked through with a C-minus graded on a curve because none of the other candidates did enough to knock him down – despite Ms. Freeland’s regular efforts to interrupt him.
Ms. Gould, the 37-year-old cabinet veteran, was probably the winner of the night, and she staked a claim as the candidate for the party’s progressive left, arguing against spending cuts and calling for a modernization of Canada’s social safety net.
Former member of Parliament Frank Baylis speaks during a press conference following the first night of the Liberal Leadership Debate.ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images
Mr. Baylis took the toughest line on dealing with Mr. Trump, asserting he would dare Mr. Trump to increase tariffs on Canadian energy and face higher prices in the U.S.
But neither is expected to win. Ms. Gould even called herself the candidate of the future, and one part of her was probably alluding to the next Liberal leadership race.
At the end, the big issue was still Mr. Trump. All the candidates wrapped themselves in the flag and promised to bring the country together to meet the challenge. Ms. Freeland even ended the evening by saying of the U.S. President: “He knows who I am. We know that.”
But no one won ground on that big issue so Mr. Carney is still the front-runner.