Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould acknowledged Wednesday that the Trudeau government made mistakes and failed to listen to Canadians, saying she often “raised my voice” against the Prime Minister and cabinet during her eight years as a minister.
“I am not too proud to say we didn’t get things right,” said the Burlington, Ont., MP. “There were times when we weren’t listening to Canadians. I have done a lot of reflecting as a leader, as a Canadian, as a mother, about when that moment was and what we could have done differently.”
Blacklock's Reporter says Gould did not provide examples of specific disagreements but insisted she spoke up internally.
“Certainly, I raised my voice,” she said. “That’s something you do when you’re part of a team.”
She added that while she was “proud” of many government initiatives, she recognized where they had gone wrong.
As Minister of Social Development in 2022, Gould oversaw the passport office backlog, which led to three-month processing delays. At the time, she defended the government’s response, saying, “We are doing everything we can.”
In 2023, as Government House Leader, she was involved in the controversy surrounding the House of Commons’ recognition of a Nazi collaborator. “This hurt all of us in Parliament,” she later said.
Gould also faced scrutiny for a 2019 research project she financed as Minister of Democratic Institutions, which spent $99,115 documenting supposed links between Conservative MPs and German Nazis.
The study claimed that “efforts to reclaim history as a white, middle class colonial space with firm cultural connections to Britain have jumped from fringe accounts into the mainstream.”
Gould’s comments came as fellow leadership contender Mark Carney criticized Trudeau’s economic record.
Carney pointed to government spending increases of over 9% annually — double the economy’s growth rate — and said Canada’s recent economic performance relied heavily on immigration-fueled labor force growth.
“Be clear about the, quote, ‘strength’ of our economy,” said Carney.
