Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 14, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba A4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM O TTAWA — Former finance minister Chrys- tia Freeland will announce her intention to run for the Liberal party leadership just before the U.S. presidential inauguration, a source close to her campaign team said Monday. The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the announcement, also said Freeland’s first policy promise will be to im- pose dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports to match the tariffs U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to impose on Canada. Trump has promised to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico on Jan. 20, the day he is inaugurated. The federal and provincial governments are working together to set retaliatory tariffs to respond to that threat, trying to target U.S. exports that would wreak maximum damage on regions important to Republican leaders including Trump. Freeland was a key player in responding to Trump tariffs during his first term in the White House. As the minister of foreign affairs she oversaw a dollar-for-dollar tariff response to Trump’s imposition of import taxes on Canadi- an steel and aluminum in 2018. Freeland initially led Canada’s cabinet com- mittee working to mount the response this time but has not been at that table since she resigned from cabinet Dec. 16. That bombshell move — which came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told her he was replacing her as finance minister with former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney — set in motion the final chapter of Trudeau’s tenure at the top. It ignited a firestorm of criticism within his caucus that ultimately led him to say last week that he would step down as soon as a new leader is chosen. The party has now set the date for that as March 9, and candidates have until Jan. 23 to declare their intention to run. The Freeland campaign source said main- taining Canada’s strong relationship with the U.S. is shaping her early policy decisions, and the dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs would be developed in concert with the provinces. Trudeau is set to meet Wednesday with the premiers to finalize Canada’s response plan. Freeland is expected to be joined in the race by Carney, and former B.C. premier Christy Clark though neither have yet formally declared their candidacies. Ontario MP Chandra Arya and former Montreal MP Frank Baylis are the only two to officially join the contest. A source close to Industry Minister François- Philippe Champagne, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said he plans to reveal today whether he will run, making his announcement during a talk at the Canadian Club in Toronto hosted by business journalist Amanda Lang. Freeland, Carney, Clark, Arya and Baylis are among the seven prospective leadership can- didates with forms posted on the Liberal party website to collect the signatures they require to enter the race. Cabinet ministers Karina Gould and Jonathan Wilkinson are also on that list. Nova Scotia MP Jaime Battiste said Monday he is “laying the groundwork for an explorato- ry team” for a bid to make history as the first Indigenous prime minister. While Champagne has long been floated in media reports as a potential leadership contend- er, he appears to have no publicly available page on the party website seeking signatures. To launch a leadership run, each candidate must collect 300 signatures from registered Liberals, including at least 100 from three dif- ferent provinces or territories. Transport Minister Anita Anand and Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon took themselves off a list of possible contenders over the week- end, while Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced last week they would not run. They dropped out shortly after the party announced the tight timeline and a steep entrance fee of $350,000. MacKinnon said in a social media post on Sunday that he wanted to enter to ensure strong bilingual representation, but the “time available does not allow me to mount the kind of cam- paign that I would want to run.” Battiste also said in his statement that he’s “fully aware of the complexity” of raising such a hefty sum in such a short time period. They also face a fast-approaching cutoff date of Jan. 27 to sign up members eligible to vote in the race. “There are time constraints, no doubt about it,” Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi told reporters in Ottawa Monday, noting a federal election will follow closely after the new leader is chosen. “It’s important we have a strong leader in place as quickly as possible.” Trudeau’s office confirmed the outgoing prime minister will refrain from weighing in during the race and will remain neutral. The party’s leadership vote committee, led by former party president Suzanne Cowan and the party’s Quebec director Marc-Etienne Vien, is drafting the rules and procedures for the vote, while the leadership expense committee is working on setting the spending rules and limits. Party president Sachit Mehra announced over the weekend that the committee has tapped Beatrice Keleher Raffoul to serve as the chief electoral officer for the vote. — The Canadian Press NEWS I LOCAL TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2025 Too late for a Liberal return to ‘radical centre’ T HE only certainty for die-hard federal Liberals is they will have a new leader by March 9. Beyond that, uncertainty reigns over the entirety of the Gritdom. Even with a new leader, where do the Liberals go from their current position: non-competitive with the Conservatives and only slightly more popular than the chronically non-competitive NDP? Former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien has a suggestion. Return to the “radical centre.” “It is a fundamental condition for the party to come back to be the radical centre, as I used to say, because it is what has been the Liberal party all along,” Chrétien told CTV’s Question Period on Sunday. Chrétien is right. And he is profoundly wrong. It is correct to say that one of the Liberal Par- ty’s strengths — perhaps its greatest strength — has been its ability to appeal to the broadest constituency of voters by straddling the centre of the political spectrum, with a toe in both the left and right pond. It’s also historically accurate to say Chrétien’s “Red Wave” majority of 1993 was an excellent case in point: the Liberals campaigned on reduc- ing the deficit to three per cent of GDP in their first term through intensive “program review” to improve the efficiency of the federal govern- ment, and tax cuts, most notably a promise to kill the hated GST (which never happened). The Chrétien Liberals won a strong majority; the Progressive Conservatives lost 154 of their 156 seats. It’s hard to deny Chrétien, a true electoral warrior, his say on the current plight of the Lib- eral party. But never have the words “that was then, and this is now” had more meaning. What made the Liberals so daunting in the 1990s, and again in 2015 under Justin Trudeau, was that the presence of a constituency that em- braced a government offering some semblance of a progressive agenda. Although not exclusive- ly, that has largely been the Canadian condition: voters seem to like civilized, middle-of-the-road politics, shunning extremism of any particular disposition. You might remember the PCs created a seminal moment in the 1993 election with their decision to run a series of television advertise- ments attacking Chrétien. The ads used images of the Liberal leader with unflattering facial expressions. Then, the catch-line: “I would be very embarrassed if he became prime minister of Canada.” Although the PC campaign insisted the phrase was aimed at Liberal policies, many perceived it as an attack on Chrétien’s partial facial paraly- sis, a condition brought on by Bell’s palsy. The Liberal war room immediately cried foul and the momentum Chrétien had been building reached a crescendo by election day. Chrétien is not wrong to recall 1993 as a mo- ment of great triumph for the Liberals, but the former prime minister seems painfully unaware that voter sensibilities — at least the sensibilities of those currently most likely to vote — have changed dramatically since he thrashed Tory prime minister Kim Campbell. Today, it is highly unlikely any voter would blink at a personal attack ad that made fun of someone’s appearance. Attack ads have become increasingly edgy, with images and allegations that might have provoked a negative blowback three decades ago. Times have changed. Now, centre-left and progressive governments all over the world are finding themselves falling in elections as voters embrace increasingly right-wing philosophies. A combination of the pandemic and ensuing economic stresses — job losses, inflation, high interest rates and spikes in the cost of hous- ing — have convinced many centrist voters not only of the need for change, but also the need to abandon progressive political ideology. Thus, the “anti-woke” political movement, something that would not have had much traction even a few years ago, is threatening to overwhelm the next Canadian election. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been masterful at integrating “anti-woke” senti- ment into his political hyperbole. He has courted white nationalists, embraced the so-called Freedom Convoy protest and other off-shoots of the anti-vaccine and pandemic restriction move- ment, and stoked anti-immigration sentiments. In a recent interview with Winnipeg Jewish Re- view, Poilievre threatened to “fire government officials throughout my administration who are imposing a toxic woke ideology.” Even a few years ago, all of these things might have spelled doom for a political leader with a realistic shot at becoming prime minister. But Poilievre is recasting the rules of engagement with the knowledge that while a lot of centre to centre-left voters are struggling to decide who to vote for, an increasing number of angry, an- ti-woke voters are profoundly motivated to vote in the next election. Finding a political brand that serves as an effective counterpoint to Poilievre’s anti-woke crusade — a banner that is exceedingly effective and exceedingly vague at the same time — will be the next Liberal leader’s chief responsibility. It is unlikely that new brand, or renewed tradi- tional brand, will arrive before the next election, which appears likely to be held sometime in late April or early May. That means the new Liberal leader will be bracing for a thrashing with the hope that they can find their place on the political spectrum in time for the election after next. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca DAN LETT OPINION ‘He was hit by a car and then executed’ ERIK PINDERA THE second Manitoba trial for a man accused in the 2021 shooting death of his neighbour began Monday, a year and a half after a judge was forced to declare a mistrial when the accused’s lawyer fell ill. Eric Wildman, 38, is charged with first-degree murder in the June 7, 2021, slaying of 40-year-old Clifford Joseph. Wildman and Joseph lived on neighbouring prop- erties near Stead, about 90 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. Crown prosecutors allege Wildman caught Jo- seph stealing from him early that morning, ran him down with his vehicle, then moved him elsewhere, where he shot him three times, including once in the back of the head. Wildman had initial- ly begun to stand trial in May 2023 in front of Court of King’s Bench Justice Richard Saull and a jury, but a mistrial was declared in June after his lead defence lawyer, Mar- tin Glazer, came down with a medical issue that wouldn’t allow him to pro- ceed. After a jury selection process Monday morning in front of Saull, Wild- man’s trial began. He has pleaded not guilty and is again being represented by lawyers Glazer and Mitchell Enright. Crown prosecutors Christian Vanderhooft and Bryton Moen gave jurors — six women and eight men — an overview of the allegations and facts in the case. After a fire in May 2021 in which Wildman’s house and a number of vehicles burned (he fixed and sold cars and trucks), Joseph went onto Wildman’s land to steal, but never came home, Moen said. “Clifford Joseph wasn’t an angel,” said Moen. “He was a thief, a drug user and he cheated on his girl- friend … but that, however, did not make it OK for Eric Wildman to kill him.” Joseph was reported missing by his girlfriend, Cristin Wise, that same day, but his remains were not found until July 18, 2021. Wise had gone to the property to look for Joseph and found his truck across the road with his keys and phone inside. She also found tire tracks, and Jo- seph’s hat, shoes and head- lamp. Later, she found Jo- seph’s tools near a trailer and reported him missing to RCMP. Wildman called RCMP from his mother’s Winni- peg home on June 9 and claimed on the night of Joseph’s disappearance he had been staying at a friend’s, Moen said. The prosecutor said that man later told RCMP that Wildman had never stayed there. Investigators found Wildman’s car outside an- other friend’s house in Winnipeg. Inside the Chevrolet Impala, RCMP found an empty gun case and a receipt for an auto part store from June 9, where Moen alleged Wildman pur- chased a new hood and replaced it in the parking lot. Moen accused Wildman of doing that to cover up damage to the vehicle that occurred when he al- legedly struck Joseph. After police towed Wildman’s vehicle, he again called the RCMP to report a handgun missing from his Stead property and learned he had been identi- fied as a suspect in the killing. Police advised him to stay at his mom’s home, from where he had made the call, Moen said. Instead, Wildman took a taxi to the airport, rent- ed a car and fled to Belleville, Ont., where Ontario Provincial Police located him on June 16, Moen said. He was arrested on June 18, 2021, and found with a legally owned pistol, said Moen. RCMP search and rescue found Joseph’s body on July 18, a short distance from Wildman’s prop- erty, the prosecutor said. He had a broken leg and a broken jaw, but those injuries didn’t kill him, said Moen. “He was hit by a car and then executed,” he said. Moen said the Crown will call a number of people who knew Joseph to testify. The prosecution also plans to call police investigators and experts. Prosecutors called two RCMP officers to testify Monday. The first, Cpl. Kyle Beech, was working at the Sel- kirk detachment and was assigned to investigate the missing person’s report Wise filed. He visited Wildman’s property on June 7, 2021, and took photographs of the area and located Jo- seph’s hat, shoes and headlamp. The second, Cpl. Adam Wood, works as a foren- sics identification officer. Wood went to the area the following day and was assigned to take photographs of where Joseph’s truck was reportedly found. He said he found no significant evidence beyond a tire trail without sig- nificant tracks within it. The trial continues today with testimony from Wise. It is scheduled for five weeks. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca Second trial begins for man accused of killing neighbour RCMP Eric Wildman SUPPLIED Clifford Joseph JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES0 Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland plans to run to be leader of the Liberal Party, a source says. Chrystia Freeland to announce bid for Liberal leadership within week KYLE DUGGAN, MIA RABSON AND EMILIE BERGERON Elections task force watching race for signs of foreign interference OTTAWA — The Liberal party’s leader- ship race will be monitored by Canada’s elections intelligence task force for signs of foreign interference, national security adviser Nathalie Drouin said Monday. Drouin said that while leadership campaigns are conducted by individual political parties, they play a crucial role in maintaining the integrity of our democratic processes. The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, set up in 2019 to protect the electoral process from foreign interference, includes repre- sentatives of CSIS, the RCMP, Global Affairs Canada and the Communications Security Establishment Canada. The issue of interference in leadership races and nomination contests was one of the key areas of focus of the federal public inquiry into foreign interference. A final report is expected by the end of the month. The Liberal party has taken measures to curb voter fraud in its leadership race by limiting voting to party members who are permanent residents or citizens, or have status under the Indian Act. The party’s old rules allowed anyone who resided in Canada to vote in its leadership races, regardless of whether they had citizen or resident status. “What the party has not yet done is say anything about how it would mon- itor or report out publicly on any signs of foreign interference,” said Wesley Wark, a senior fellow a the Centre for International Governance Innovation who has served on Canada’s advisory council on national security. Wark said that while the measures the party has taken are good, they’re incomplete. A Liberal party official said the leadership vote committee has been meeting since Friday to finalize the vote process, and we will have more to say in the coming weeks. — The Canadian Press ;