Karina Gould says she wants key roles for her leadership opponents

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OTTAWA — Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould said on Wednesday she would invite her three opponents to play key roles in her cabinet if she becomes prime minister — despite having criticized some of them as “conservative-light” the day prior.

Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Gould said this week’s Liberal leadership debates in English and French were an opportunity to showcase the “diversity and breadth of talent” inside the party before she detailed her promise.

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“I’m here today to say that when I become prime minister, I’m going to invite every single one of those folks on the stage to be a part of my team,” she said.

“We need Mark Carney when it comes to the economy. We need Chrystia Freeland when it comes to foreign affairs, and we need Frank Baylis when it comes to health,” she added.

Gould, who considers herself as a more progressive candidate, said she is committed to making sure that the Liberal Party of Canada is home to a diversity of opinions if she becomes leader. She argued the Liberals perform best when they are a “big tent.”

That show of unity was a contrast to some of Gould’s attacks the night before.

During Tuesday night’s English debate, Gould claimed that Liberals would only win the next election by being true to themselves, not by parroting some of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s talking points. She did not directly point fingers at either of her opponents.

“The way that we’re going to bring young people back to the party is not by being ‘conservative-light’ and not by being unambitious for Canada,” she said at one point.

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“We will only win an election by being Liberals, proudly, not ‘conservative-light,’ not by running from the progress we’ve made,” she reiterated in her closing statement.

Carney, Freeland and Baylis have all vowed to be more fiscally responsible than the current prime minister. Carney and Freeland have committed to scrapping the consumer carbon tax and cutting the GST on new homes like Poilievre has vowed to do.

Gould would instead pause this year’s increase on the carbon tax. She also said she disagrees with the idea of cutting the GST on new homes, saying it would only help people who already have the money to put a down payment on a home in the first place.

Gould would not say who, among her competitors, she considers fit the description of “conservative-light” during Tuesday’s debate.

“There were a number of my colleagues who were using some of the same language and some of the same ideas as Pierre Poilievre,” she simply said.

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“Pierre Poilievre is not who we should be trying to emulate as Liberals or as Canadians.”

A source close to Gould told the National Post this week that she “sees herself as a protector of the Liberal party” and would not hesitate to challenge some of her colleagues’ ideas during the debates in a friendly manner, which is what she did.

Gould said what attracted her to the party at a young age was that “robust space for debate” and said that Liberal candidates are not supposed to “think all the same way.”

She said for instance that she does not agree with Carney’s idea of separating the federal government’s operating and capital budgets, and said she thinks it is important to have only one budget “for Canadians, for transparency, for international standards.”

“That being said, Mark Carney has excellent experience on the economy,” she said. “I think having him in my cabinet helping on economic issues is going to be something that is good for Canada.”

Gould said she does not agree with everything that Freeland has done in cabinet but applauded how well she defended and protected Canada as foreign affairs minister during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term. “We’re going to need her expertise,” she said.

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“And Frank Baylis, he has tremendous ideas when it comes to health care, I want all of those ideas to form part of a Gould cabinet,” she added.

Now that the debates are over, Liberal members are now currently able to vote for their preferred leader in a preferential ballot. The winner will be announced on March 9.

Gould said she will not tell her supporters who to pick as a second or third choice, nor does she intend to make any deals with either one of the other leadership camps.

“It’s up to them to decide who they will support,” she said. “But what I want to say to Liberals today is that after the performance of the past two days, I think they know in their hearts who did the best and who is best placed to defend Liberal values.”

“We need to have somebody who can go toe-to-toe, head-to-head with Pierre Poilievre, and who can win. Debates matter, elections matter, and I know that I’m the leader that can win us the next election.”

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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