\n<\/p>\n
The protester leaped on to the stage, lunged at Chrystia Freeland and screamed within inches of her face.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t flinch.<\/p>\n
Her January campaign launch for leadership of the Liberal Party, and by extension Canada, was disrupted, but the encounter made a point no stump speech could have landed as effectively: She\u2019s unflappable.<\/p>\n
Ms. Freeland, a career journalist from Alberta who rose through elite institutions to become a top politician, is now running to replace the man who brought her into politics, Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Canada\u2019s Liberal Party will announce the results of its election for a new leader, chosen by 400,000 members. The winner will also become Canada\u2019s prime minister, though not for long: The party does not command a majority in Parliament, so has a weak grip on power. Federal elections must take place before October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ms. Freeland\u2019s dramatic December resignation<\/a> as finance minister, deputy prime minister, and all-around right-hand woman to Mr. Trudeau triggered his own decision to step down<\/a>, plunging Canada into political turmoil.<\/p>\n This has come as Canada is thrust in crisis. This week President Trump made good on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods and, while he eased some of those measures Thursday, he made plain he would continue to hit Canada\u2019s economy with surcharges.<\/p>\n Canada retaliated, entering an uneven trade war with its closest economic partner. Mr. Trump has also menaced Canada in a more existential way, insisting he wants to make it the 51st state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Canadians are evaluating their political leaders on the basis of who is best to fight for Canada against Mr. Trump, polling shows. Ms. Freeland, 56, is the underdog. She is running against a friend, the former central banker Mark Carney, who is the front-runner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed his dislike of Ms. Freeland.<\/p>\n During his first presidency, she led the Canadian side on the renegotiation of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement. By all accounts, she drove a tough bargain and won concessions for Canada.<\/p>\n When she announced she was stepping down in December, Mr. Trump posted, \u201cHer behavior was totally toxic.\u201d<\/p>\n And last week, in an interview with the British outlet The Spectator, he doubled down: \u201cShe\u2019s a whack,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s absolutely terrible for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n But Ms. Freeland seems to be relishing the fight.<\/p>\n \u201cDonald Trump doesn\u2019t like me very much,\u201d she says with a smile on one of her ads. On her Instagram, she posted a New York Times article about Mr. Trump disparaging her, adding a dismissive caption: a manicure emoji.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a strategy when it comes to the single biggest challenge Canada is facing: fighting for Canada, standing up to Trump,\u201d she said in an interview with The Times at her Toronto home last month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And despite the antipathy, she had praise for him. \u201cI have a lot of respect for President Trump,\u201d she said. \u201cHe is not afraid of being a disrupter, he glories in it, and he knows how to use that to his own benefit, and in many situations, it works,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Less ardent critics see Ms. Freeland\u2019s effort to differentiate herself from Mr. Trudeau as too little too late, and hold her accountable for her central role in his now unpopular government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Freeland\u2019s had a modest childhood, raised by divorced parents and spending long stretches working on the family farm in Peace River, Alberta, and in Edmonton, where her mother, a Ukrainian immigrant, worked as a lawyer.<\/p>\n Ms. Freeland left Alberta on a scholarship at 16 to finish high school at a selective international school in Italy. She later studied at Harvard and was a <\/span>Rhodes scholar at Oxford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nGrist in the Mill<\/h2>\n
Liberal Rise<\/h2>\n