Karina Gould's progressive approach sets her apart from the Liberal leadership pack

Liberal Party of Canada leadership candidate Karina Gould speaks during an availability on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

OTTAWA — In a leadership race dominated by high-profile insiders vying for outsider status, Karina Gould stands out.

The plain-spoken suburban mom from Burlington, Ont. is facing opponents with high levels of name recognition like Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney — people comfortable on the international stage who earn media coverage with ease.

While her opponents lean to the centre-right and distance themselves from a deeply unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gould is doubling down on Trudeau-era values.

“I’m very proud to be on the progressive side of the party,” Gould said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

She has carved out a niche for herself as the only candidate running on the Liberals' social policy legacy of the last ten years. She’s also the only leadership candidate suggesting that the party should salvage the divisive consumer carbon tax.

“I’m not going to abandon the fight on climate change. I got into politics because I care about the future of this planet,” she said.

“I’ve got little kids. I need to make sure that they have a planet where they can breathe clean air and drink clean water, where we’re not overrun by extreme weather events.”

Gould — who has been dubbed “carbon tax Karina” by the Opposition Conservatives — said she sees the hatred whipped up over the tax being driven by cost-of-living issues. She said that’s why she’s proposing affordability policies like a temporary full-point cut to the GST and moving toward a universal basic income.

A former chief of staff in the Trudeau government said Gould’s message of continuity will resonate with some Liberals.

“There are a lot of Liberals that are very proud of a lot of what was accomplished and don’t really want to see it all thrown out because the leader became very unpopular,” said Stevie O’Brien, now a senior adviser at McMillan Vantage.

“She’s sort of saying, ‘I still hear you. I’m not throwing everything out.’ And she’s the only one who’s saying that. That might have some weight. It may put her the second on a lot of votes, if not first.”

Even though she’s been in Trudeau’s cabinet for years, Gould is still not well known outside the Ottawa bubble.

A heckler shouting about the Liberal party confronted Gould on the street outside Parliament on Wednesday — but was nonplussed when he couldn’t identify her.

“Can I ask you who you are? Who is this person?” the man asked.

Gould’s profile is getting a major boost from the leadership race.

While she’s trailing far behind in the polls and has watched much of the media’s attention go to Carney, the perceived front-runner, Gould said she’s confident about her chances and believes her strong debate performance is giving her momentum.

“I’ve run enough election campaigns to know that things can change in a couple of days and in a couple of weeks,” she said. “Every day matters in a campaign and debates matter. We know that those are moments where people tune in and they make decisions.”

Gould is enough of a student of Canadian politics to recognize those moments when they happen. Walking out of the Ottawa offices of The Canadian Press after her interview, she paused before an iconic photo of the famous moment during the 1984 election debate when Brian Mulroney landed a verbal knockout blow on John Turner.

“Oh my gosh, is this, ‘You had an option, sir’?” she remarked.

There were no KOs in the two leadership debates this week — something that likely would have angered the party base so close to an election. Even Gould admitted afterward she was fighting with “kid gloves” during the placid exchanges.

Liberal strategists say the story emerging from her campaign is that she has beaten expectations by appearing competitive with Freeland.

“Right now, there’s probably ten Liberal cabinet ministers at least who are looking at this and saying, ‘No, no! I could have had the same push that Karina Gould has been getting in this race if I had only entered,’” said Alex Kohut, former research manager for the Prime Minister’s Office. He’s conducting polling on the Liberal leadership race.

Kohut said Gould didn’t seem like a breakout candidate at the start of the race. He said that if ten candidates had run, she probably would have started off in 8th or 9th place. Now she’s generating buzz in party circles.

“It seems everyone’s talking about it right now and that’s hugely important — even more so than what her vote share will be in the race,” Kohut said. “She is seen as a potential future leader of the party.

“It sets her up as a serious player if the Liberals form government again, if she wants to do anything else at any point, whether it is a dive into provincial politics in the future,” O’Brien said. “She’s gone from being just another cabinet minister ... to being a potential leader-in-waiting and a voice of the next generation of Liberals.”

Gould has criticized her own party for not picking up quickly enough on the financial pain Canadians felt in the post-pandemic economy.

“Sometimes you’ve just gotta say the thing — you’ve just gotta say what people are feeling,” she said after Tuesday’s debate.

She has spent the race talking directly to the base. She was the only candidate to launch their bid by making it all about the party, talking about internal reforms and promising more policy conventions.

“It’s always been the membership that has put out-of-the-box thinking onto the table,” she said.

She would know. Before she was elected, she was one of many grassroots Liberals calling for a national child care program, something her local electoral district association put forward on the convention floor. She wound up being the minister who implemented it.

As she rose up through the ranks of government to become House leader, she also became the first federal cabinet minister to give birth while in office and take maternity leave.

Gould has two children at home with her husband Alberto Gerones, whom she met in Mexico when she was there volunteering at an orphanage. In line with her progressive suburban image, Gerones looks after the children at home while she’s busy in the capital.

Gould said that, growing up, she was a competitive dancer and a “terrible” hockey player for two years on her high school women’s team.

“The first game I ever played, I scored a goal. It’s my only goal. It ricocheted off of my stick into the net, and I never scored a goal again,” she said. “But I enjoyed playing.”

She laughs off the suggestion that she could score a goal against Carney, who has played up the fact that he used to be a goalie.

The two will face off in the final leadership vote on March 9, along with Freeland and Montreal businessman Frank Baylis. But Carney remains the favourite in that arena as well.

Gould won’t say who her second choice will be on her own ballot and notes that conventions aren’t delegated anymore — so she’s not going to throw her support behind anyone.

She also said she intends to win.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2025

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press