Karina Gould launches race for Liberal leadership

Karina Gould, who holds the position of Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, officially announces her candidacy to replace Justin Trudeau at the head of the Liberal Party of Canada.

In a message published on social networks, she affirms that the country is ripe, according to her, for a new generation of leaders.

Let’s be honest: Canadians have lost confidence in our partyshe says, staring into the camera in the video that accompanies her announcement. She promises to rebuild the Liberal Party in order to regain voter confidence.

She adds that the party needs a leader who fights for CanadiansWho don’t be intimidated and who don’t give up. As parliamentary leader of the government, she often crossed swords with the leaders of the Conservative Party in Parliament.

Youngest candidate

At 37, the MP from Burlington, Ontario, becomes the youngest candidate to run to succeed Justin Trudeau, just days before the official deadline to register for this race.

Elected under the Liberal banner in 2015, Ms. Gould has been part of the Trudeau cabinet since 2017, first as Minister of Democratic Institutions, then as responsible for International Development. It is above all as Minister of Families that she made herself known since she piloted the affordable daycare project throughout the country.

Karina Gould is the only active member of the government to have declared her intention to succeed her leader. Other major ministers, notably Mélanie Joly and François-Philippe Champagne, chose to pass their turn.

She will notably face the former governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, and the former Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland.

Freeland attacks Poilievre

Ms. Freeland, who wants to demonstrate that she is best placed to resist US President-elect Donald Trump, published her first video advertisement on social networks on Saturday morning.

Recalling the anger that Mr. Trump showed towards her, she described herself as a formidable negotiator during negotiations on theCUSMA. She mentioned that Mr. Trump doesn’t like her very much since Canada emerged victorious from these negotiations.

She also took the opportunity to throw a few arrows at Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, predicting that he would give in to Mr. Trump and sell the country short.

Other MPs have also expressed their interest in the Liberal leadership. They are Ottawa MP Chandra Arya as well as former Montreal MP Frank Baylis.

With information from The Canadian Press