Karina Gould launches her campaign by promising to “rebuild” the Liberal Party

“I became a Liberal on October 30, 1995,” said Karina Gould, 37, in front of a crowd of friends and activists who came to attend the launch of her campaign for the leadership of her party on Sunday. “I was a child, but I have a very clear memory of the moment. It was the date of the referendum [sur l’indépendance] of Quebec. »

I remember the anxiety that overwhelmed me when thinking about the future of our country, she continued. And then I remember seeing Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on television and the relief I felt. And I thought, “Here’s a man fighting for Canada.”

It is this combative heritage that Karina Gould wanted to highlight in the inaugural speech of her campaign, delivered on Sunday in her constituency of Burlington, Ontario. This is the essence of the Liberal Party of Canada, she said. The Liberals are fighting for Canada.

She thus promised, if she was elected head of the party and, in factof the country, to fight the menaces of Pierre Poilievre, who wishes, according to her, change Canadian values.

However, she was careful not to go into the details of her program. Called during the question period to clarify her position on the carbon tax, she maintained that she understand that, for some Canadians, it is not about the right way to combat climate change.

She therefore proposes to go easy on herself, or to cancel the increase in the price on pollution, scheduled for April 1, while retaining the broad outlines of this flagship measure of the Trudeau government. She also wants to find tools to allow Canadians to be part of the solution and do pay the big polluters.

Other positions, particularly regarding the imposition of capital gains tax, will be clarified in the coming daysshe told journalists.

One party to rebuild

Karina Gould will first have to wage the fight within the party of which she was, just last week, the leader in the House of Commons, a party which, according to her, must be rebuilt.

We need to rebuild our party if we want to rebuild our countryshe repeated a few times during her speech.

Canadians have lost confidence in our party.

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To do this, it relies on the involvement of liberal activists from all Canadian provinces. The best ideas have always been put on the table by activistsshe said, citing in passing the legalization of gay marriage, that of cannabis as well as reconciliation with indigenous peoples.

We need a new generation of leadersshe repeated several times, both in English and in French.

Youth as a business card

If Karina Gould wins her bet, she would become in fact the youngest prime minister in Canadian history. What I represent is […] a younger voice, who experiences challenges every day [que vivent] other Canadiansshe said in an interview on the show THE corridors of power.

It is not new that Karina Gould’s young age constitutes her main calling card in politics.

In 2015, at just 28 years old, she managed to wrest the Ontario riding of Burlington from Conservative Mark Wallace. In conceding the victory, the latter had quipped: I have been an MP for 23 years. Tonight I was defeated by a 28 year old.

Entering Ottawa as Parliamentary Secretary for International Development, Ms. Gould became the youngest woman to hold a ministerial position in the country’s history when she was entrusted, in 2017, with the Ministry of Democratic Institutions.

Among other things, she had to defend her government’s choice to ax the reform of the voting system, a cornerstone of its program a few years earlier.

After her time at the head of International Development, she headed the Ministry of Families, Children and Social Development, where she notably piloted the pan-Canadian affordable daycare program.

With information from CBC and about Macleans