Five taking on the debate about liberal leadership in Canada

After the debate in English and French, candidates to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the leader of the Liberal Party in Canada have made their case to the voters.

The card liberals will already choose between former governor of Canada and England Mark Carney banks, former finance minister Cristi Freeland, Chamber Government leader Karina Gould and businessman and former MP Frank Bailis.

Anyone who won the vote on March 9 will become the next Canada Prime Minister and lead the liberals of the upcoming general elections to be held on or before October 20 this year.

The big focus of the debate is how Canada should respond to US President Donald Trump, who threatened steep tariffs for America's northern neighbor and offered Canada to become the “51st country”.

Here are five major bearers from the two debates for liberal leadership.

How Canada should respond to what many have called an “existential threat” by US President Donald Trump, surprisingly dominates the agenda in both debates.

Trump said he plans to impose a 25% tariff for all Canadian exports, except for the energy that will be targeted at a lower 10% – a move that economists claim to be devastating for Canada while increasing prices for The Americans.

He has also repeatedly offered the United States to annex Canada, which is met with anxiety and anger of large parts of the Canadian population.

Freeland, a former senior minister who serves during Trump's first term, is positioned as an experienced negotiator who is fighting – and won – against the President of the United States and his previous tariffs.

But Carney warned that Trump is not Trump today from the past. “He is a more insulationist. He is more aggressive,” Carney said. “In the past, he wanted our markets. Now he wants our country.”

Gould, the youngest candidate, suggested that Canada must “put everything on the table” to protect its sovereignty and that the federal government should help businesses diversify their portfolios to depend less than the United States.

Meanwhile, Bailis said Canada should build closer economic ties with the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia, saying that all four are adherents with shared values, culture and government systems.

Trump's threats become more anxious than Canada's current economic situation.

The country's GDP contracted last year, along with the value of the Canadian dollar, and the Canadians expressed frustrations from the stubborn high cost of life.

Carney – trade economist – focuses much of his messages on this. He promised a plan that would balance Canada's operational budget in three years and offered Canada to rethink the way he spent his money.

But he also noted his support for key liberal programs, such as affordable care for children and dental care.

As the former finance minister, Freeland, has defended his experience, saying the country's finances are still “very strong”. She added that Canada should take advantage of the jump of patriotism over Trump's threats, using this inertia to support Canadian industries and promote job growth.

Bailis took advantage of her experience as a businessman to say that Canada should work on building her performance.

Gould, on the other hand, said the Liberal Party should be “realistic with the Canadians” and that balancing the budget for three years is not possible without significant cuts, which it does not support. She said Canada should instead focus on “modernizing her social security network” to help those who are fighting.

“We are facing extreme threats from the United States, so we must be able to invest in our people and in our business to protect them,” Gould said.

The four candidates were discussed with each other, but often presented a united front against their shared opponent, the conservative party leader Pierre Polyver, whose party was preferred in the ballot boxes as the most likely to form the next government of Canada.

The hopes for liberal leadership have thrown several strokes in Poiliev throughout the debate. Gould called it “our small version of Trump here at home” while Freeland said Polyver strives to “imitate” Trump.

Carney criticized Poiliev as “irresponsible” and added that Canada “could not afford to” have it as Prime Minister.

Polyver, who enjoyed a significant lead in the ballot box before the unpopular Trudeau, had to rotate the Canadians after Trudeau's resignation.

His message has changed from the criticism of the sedentary Prime Minister for leading a “broken” Canada to place Canada in the first place in front of threats from the United States. He also focused his focus on Carney's attack, which is preferred to win the liberal leadership race.

Poilievre is still on a national scale, but some polls suggest that the leading part between it and the liberals has shrunk after Trudeau is released.

In response to a shift in US policy on the ongoing war in Russia-Ukraine, the four candidates confirmed their commitment to continuing Canada's support for Ukraine.

All of them also supported the need for Canada to achieve their goal for military spending by 2%, as stated in their commitments to NATO Alliance, although they did not agree during the timeline and how to get there.

Freeland said Canada should hit the target by 2027 and should do so by investing in the next generation of wars. Bailis and Carney said their plan would be to Canada to achieve this by 2030.

Both Freeland and Carney said Canada should invest this money in Canadian military endeavors instead of the US.

Freeland noted that Canada should reduce its US reading and should seek to work with the EU and other NATO guarantee guarantees.

Carbon tax for consumers and business is the cornerstone of Trudeau's government policy on climate change.

But this tax turned out to be unpopular with the Canadians, forcing Carney and Freeland to promise that they would give up politics.

Carney, a former UN special envoy for climate and finance, has long been a supporter of carbon carbon tax. In the debate, however, he admitted that consumer tax had split and said he would instead focus on the tax on large pollutants and growing clean energy projects in Canada.

Freeland, who resigned from the Trudeau government due to disagreements with the Prime Minister in terms of costs, said the story would have favorably assessing his climate action, despite his unpopularity of his policy. But she also swore to scrap the carbon carbon tax.

“Democracy is about listening to people, and the Canadians were very clear with us that they did not think politics are working for them,” she said.

Gould and Bailis, on the other hand, said they would retain some version of the consumer carbon tax, saying that the fight against climate change came at a price.