What Liberals Like and Dislike about Chrystia Freeland

The former Deputy PM is praised for her knowledge and experience, but faces questions from the Liberal base about electability and her dispute with Trudeau.

Findings in this article are drawn from my own self-funded online survey of 675 likely Liberal leadership voters. More details on the methodology are here.

Chrystia Freeland is firmly entrenched in the #2 spot in the Liberal leadership race, but momentum has not been in her favour thus far. Yesterday, I posted survey results that show Freeland is trailing to Mark Carney on her own ballot box question of who can deal with Trump the best.

Does that mean it’s time for a strategy change in the Freeland campaign?

For the next couple of days, I’m going to explore that question. Today, I’ll focus on what Liberal voters think about Freeland overall, and tomorrow I’ll dig into the tactical options that might be being considered at Freeland HQ.

Overall Impressions

Freeland is well known among the Liberal base after having had a featured Cabinet role for a number of years. Almost half (46%) of Liberal leadership voters have a positive impression of her, with this group heavily outnumbering those who dislike her. However, she was the only leadership candidate who had a significant number of critics (8%) within the party at the time the survey was fielded.

What is the Best Thing About Chrystia Freeland?

I asked leadership voters what they like best about Freeland in their own words, and the most common responses revolved around her extensive government experience and knowledge of policy files (especially her past experiences dealing with Trump and serving as Finance Minister). It’s likely that her biggest brand strength in contrast to Carney is this experience and ability to step into the job of Prime Minister without a learning curve.

Liberals do want change, so there’s a difficult tightrope to handle trying to balance emphasizing experience with avoiding being seen as a continuity candidate. Freeland will want to communicate that she has her own vision for the country, but her campaign shouldn’t shy away from highlighting the contributions she has made in recent years and emphasizing that she is ready for the job.

Quotes from respondents:

"Chrystia Freeland knows the ins and outs of the Canadian government already seeing as she's pretty much led the country under Trudeau."

"She seems like she has the courage to stand up and speak out against Trump and Putin and others."

"She's willing to fight for her country."

What is the Worst Thing About Chrystia Freeland?

Liberals are generally positive towards Freeland, but she has still picked up some baggage over the years that is dampening enthusiasm among some voters.

Her exit from Cabinet was a lose-lose scenario for her. Perception of Freeland prior to that moment tended to see her as very closely associated with the Prime Minister, and there are some responses to this question that feel Freeland was too associated with Trudeau to be able to bring the change they want. At the same time, some loyal supporters of the PM voice concerns that Freeland betrayed the party by litigating her differences with Trudeau in public. She’s well enough known for other things that she isn’t being entirely defined by that moment, but it would benefit her not to dwell on the dispute and turn it into a voting issue.

Another common theme in concerns about Freeland is electability. For some, this relates to her past closeness with Trudeau, as many feel Trudeau wasn’t likely to win the next election. For another small, but significant group, gender plays a role. Liberals aren’t saying they don’t want a female Prime Minister, but some are wondering if it’s harder for women to win elections, especially in the wake of Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris south of the border.

Quotes from respondents:

"She threw Trudeau under the bus which puts her loyalty into question."

"The worst thing is that I don't think a woman can stand up against Donald Trump [...]. The recent U.S election has proven that we have a long way to go to reach equality and inclusion."

"It’s not about her, but imo if the US still will not vote in a female president over a dictatorial radical right wing nutjob, Canada won’t either. In this particular election, unfortunately we are safer with a male candidate against Poilievre."

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the tactics available to Team Freeland to shake up the race, including discussion on how Liberals evaluate Freeland’s performance as Finance Minister and NAFTA negotiator, and if they think Trudeau was right to remove her from the Finance portfolio.

For paid subscribers, more on the demographics of attitudes towards Freeland.