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As news comes daily out of Ottawa and the U.S. concerning tariffs on Canadian goods, the “51st State” and the state of Canadian parliament, Liberal Party leadership candidate and former deputy prime minister of Canada, former finance minister for the federal government Chrystia Freeland, was a guest on The Evan Bray Show.
Listen to Chrystia Freeland on The Evan Bray Show:
EVAN BRAY: You’re in Saskatchewan for a couple of days. What does the itinerary look like after your stop on our show?
CHRYSTIA FREELAND: Today I’m in Regina meeting with lots of great people here, maybe another interview or two and then going to Moose Jaw in the afternoon and evening.
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BRAY: I feel like Saskatchewan has potentially the lowest liberal support in Canada. We used to have Ralph Goodale. Why do you think that is?
FREELAND: We as a party need to do a much better job of listening to people in Saskatchewan, I would say more broadly, in the prairie West. I come from Peace River in Edmonton.
I was up in Peace River with my dad a week ago today and hung out with some people I grew up with. We had a great evening event together.
I know people in the West, especially people in rural communities in Saskatchewan and in Alberta, don’t feel heard by liberals.
It’s important for me, not just as a politician, but as a human being, to be able to say to people in rural communities in Western Canada, to people in Saskatchewan, I hear you, and you’re going to be represented.
Growing up, my dad and my grandfather were big liberals in Peace River — this is not a community with tons of liberals in it.
I grew up understanding you don’t have to vote the same way as someone, to have not just a civil conversation, but to be in the same community with them, to have the same goals and to work together.
The thing I am proudest of in my campaign so far is there are a couple of people who’ve known me since I was a baby, who wrote checks to my campaign in Peace River.
To give you a sense of how not liberal these people are, when they learned you had to make the check out to the Liberal Party, they said, I’ll put in the money amount, but you have to put in Liberal because I just can’t write that down.
Being able to have a civil conversation, and not just civil but actually do stuff together is essential.
I have a really good relationship with Premier Moe. We worked together the first time that steel and aluminum tariffs were imposed on Canada, and he was a great partner.
I really have supported the strong positions he’s been taking about the U.S. tariffs. So you don’t have to agree with someone about everything to recognize we’re all Canadian at the end of the day. We have the same goals, and we have to work together.
BRAY: If you say, I’ve got your back Western Canada, there will be people lined up at a microphone to say, ‘It doesn’t feel like you had our back over the last nine years.’ Why should people believe it’s different for you?
FREELAND: Because it’s me and because I am different. I would say specifically on oil and gas.
Evan, go through every single word I have said, and you will never find a single sentence said by me from my lips that vilifies oil and gas.
I have always recognized the importance of oil and gas, of natural resources, of energy to Canada.
I come from northern Alberta, my brother is a pipe fitter. I have always recognized that this is important.
As finance minister, one of the things that I personally got across the finish line, which I’m very proud to have done, is building the TMX (Trans Mountain) pipeline. I got a lot of criticism from both sides over that, but we got it built.
Proof for you of how proud I was to do that is in my budget speech in the House of Commons. I talked about the golden weld, that’s the final weld you do on a pipeline.
I said, thank you to the hard-working skilled tradespeople and engineers who got that pipeline built. I can tell you there was some surprise on the benches, including people on my side of the house when I said that, but I wanted to recognize how important that pipeline is. How proud I am that we got it built, and I wanted to recognize the people who did that work.
BRAY: There are three points I’m going to hear from callers.
1. There needs to be better work at tapping into liquefied natural gas (LNG) and exporting especially right now we’re in a trade war with the United States. We could be maximizing LNG.
2. We need to fix equalization payments.
3. We need to build a pipeline from the west to the east in this country.
What are your thoughts on those three things?
FREELAND: I want to start by saying it is important for me and any government that I lead to represent the people who don’t vote for us as much as the people who do.
I really want to say to your listeners, I am not expecting very many people to call you up. Evan, I hope a few people will call up and they say, I liked what that lady had to say. I’m going to vote Liberal now.
But for the people who don’t, I want to say to them, Saskatchewan is an essential part of Canada.
If I am chosen as the next prime minister, I will be coming back here. I will be listening, and I will be working for you on your specific points.
I am very bullish on LNG, Canada has a lot of it. Peace River where I’m from has a lot of Natural Gas. This is economically really valuable. It’s a source of economic security and national security for us.
I’m Ukrainian-Canadian, like a lot of people in Saskatchewan, so especially the bridging to the Ukrainians who are listening, and I don’t want Putin to be making money selling natural gas to our allies in the Pacific.
I would rather have Japan and South Korea get Canadian LNG.
There is no reason at all that we are not doing that.
LNG has and will continue to have a lot of support from me in terms of pipelines across the country, one of the vulnerable I’m proud to be born and raised in Alberta on a farm in Peace Country. Very proud of that.
Today, I’m a member of parliament for Toronto and one of the things people in Ontario are realizing is they get their natural gas.
One of my constituents was pointing out to me heating for his house comes from a pipeline that goes through the United States.
We were talking about this threat we face from Trump and this constituent of mine, said, “Well, if we turn off our energy to them, they can turn off the natural gas to my house doesn’t get as cold in Toronto as it does in Regina, but it gets pretty cold.”
That points out to me that a generation ago, we made a mistake, understandable, but a mistake having our pipelines, having line five run through the United States.
Right now, I think are all recognize we face an existential threat from the United States. As Canadians, we have to get better at working together, better at being more resilient. You know, we don’t have our railways run through the US. I think that we shouldn’t have our pipelines running through the U.S. either.
Liberal Party leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland was on The Evan Bray Show on Feb. 14, 2024. (Abby Zieverink/980CJME)
BRAY: Why fight now? Why haven’t you been over the last nine years? Or have you been and you and others were so neutered by the Prime Minister that it was tough to make that difference, make that impression?
FREELAND: Well, first of all, Evan, I am going to say I am proud of the lot of the things that I did in government and those things I could only do in government.
The Canada Child Benefit has lifted hundreds of 1000s of families out of poverty. I am proud of that. We need to keep that personally, I am really proud of the $ 10-a-day daycare.
You said Valentine’s Day at the beginning of the show, my husband called me this morning. I’ve been married for more than 26 years. We have three kids, and for me, the most important thing in my life is being a mother, the single most important thing.
I want young women in Canada to feel like they can have a career and they can have the joy of being a mom, and $10 a day daycare makes that possible, and it helps our economy to grow at the same time.
I was really glad that we were able to do a daycare deal with Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan was enthusiastic. I’m proud that we did that. I’m proud that we did trade deals. When I was trade minister, we did a trade deal with Europe CETA (Canada-EU free trade agreement), I signed the trade deal with the Asia Pacific and as you may remember, I renegotiated NAFTA with President Trump, got a great deal for us and got those tariffs lifted.
BRAY: You’ve said publicly that President Trump doesn’t like you. Yet, you feel like you’re the best person to deal with him. Why is that?
FREELAND: I know I’m the best person to deal with him because I know how to stand up to bullies. I stood up to the President. I stood up to Vladimir Putin. I got kicked out by the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti)) when I was still a university student in Ukraine. I am not scared of bullies and I will fight for what’s right.
When it comes to Canada and the U.S., I have a plan. I have the proven experience of delivering on that plan.
Remember, the reason Trump publicly says he doesn’t like me is because I got a good deal for Canada, and at the end of the day, I have the guts to deliver on that plan.
BRAY: Are we on the right path right now?
FREELAND: What we need is to be united strong and smart. So start by working together. And I’ve had good conversations with Premier Moe. We need a Prime Minister who will be respectful of the provinces and build a united front.
Then we need to be strong quickly, dollar for dollar retaliation, 100 per cent we should publish the list right now because that’s what activates the Americans.
The Americans know how important Saskatchewan is to the American Farm Bureau, which spoke out the day after Trump threatened the 25 peer cent tariffs. Do you know what they mentioned? Potash.
“They said more than 80% of our potash comes from Canada. And they said, Mr. President, do not impose these tariffs. So we need Saskatchewan.”
And 100 per cent tariffs on Teslas. I’ve been calling for that for a long time. We should say we’re going to do it, and we should get all our allies around the world to say we’ll do it too. If the whole world, — 75 per cent of the global economy is not the U.S. — if everyone said 100% tariffs on Teslas, I think that would get the President’s attention.
BRAY: If you win the liberal leadership, or if you don’t when should the next federal election be called?
FREELAND: In terms of when the next election should be called, as the Prime Minister and as someone who has a seat in the House of Commons, I would think that all options would be open.
The first thing I would do is have a meeting with the premiers of the provinces and territories. I would say to them, okay, I have a mandate from my party. I have a seat in the House of Commons. Let’s talk about what puts Canada in the strongest bargaining position.
BRAY: Thank you for coming in, and putting yourself out there, unlike another candidate who held a hushed meeting in the basement of a Saskatoon bar.
FREELAND: In advance to people who call in. I know that there are a lot of people in Saskatchewan across the country, but maybe especially in the prairies, maybe especially in small towns like the one I grew up in northern Alberta, who don’t feel represented by our government, maybe even who feel angry.
What I want to say to you, is I’m really sorry you feel that way. You deserve to have a government, whether you vote for it or not, that listens to you.
Every day I’ve been in government, my friends and neighbours from Peace River, they send me emails and they tell me when they’re glad I’m doing something.
I got a lot of support about building the Trans Mountain Pipeline from home which helped me when other people, maybe in Ottawa didn’t like it so much.
I got criticism, too, and I want to say I accept the criticism, and if I am leader and Prime Minister, I will be back here.
I’ll be on Evan’s show. He can interrogate me and just thank you for being great Canadians.
Our whole country right now, I feel is unanimous and spontaneous in standing up to Donald Trump and saying, “We love Canada. We’re going to fight for Canada.” That’s the fight I’m ready to lead.
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