(Bloomberg) — Mark Carney, the front-runner in the race to become Canada’s next prime minister, squared off for the first time with rival Chrystia Freeland in a French-language TV debate that focused on how to handle US President Donald Trump.
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Freeland, the former finance minister, positioned herself as most capable of dealing with Trump because she’s done it before — she led the Canadian side in negotiations that resulted in a new North American trade deal during his first term. Carney pointed to his experience managing crises and argued the US president is different this time around.
“The Trump of today is not the same as before. He is more isolationist, he is more unilateralist, he is more aggressive,” Carney, the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor, said Monday evening in Montreal. “We can’t control President Trump. We have to strengthen our economy immediately, and that will strengthen our position.”
“I don’t agree that we can’t respond to President Trump and that we can’t win,” fired back Freeland, who resigned her cabinet post in December, effectively finishing Justin Trudeau’s political career. She said Trump “poses the greatest threat to Canada since World War II,” and that the government must respond with strong retaliatory tariffs “to create pressure inside the US.”
Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on most Canadian goods imported by the US, and to try to coerce Canada into becoming the 51st state, have changed the political landscape ahead of this year’s vote.
Polls show Canadians are deeply worried about the economy and are weighing who they believe is best fit to deal with Trump in a potential trade war. A recent survey by Leger Marketing also showed that voters are more inclined to support the Liberal Party if Carney is the leader than if Freeland is.
The face-off between the two leading candidates in Liberal leadership contest comes after Trudeau tried to recruit Carney to replace Freeland as finance minister in December, which led to her stinging resignation. Carney — who is also godfather to Freeland’s son — didn’t take the role.
The debate was an even-tempered affair, with the sharpest language reserved for Trump and broad policy agreements among those on stage. “We’re friends,” Freeland said during the event.
