“If she has leadership ambitions in the future, it’s important she not be the cause of sinking the ship,” Queen’s University political studies professor Jonathan Rose said. Publicly separating herself from Trudeau’s spending policies, like the GST holiday and $250 cheques for Canadians, makes sense if she wants to position herself to lead the Liberals post-Trudeau, Rose told Canada’s National Observer.

Like Trudeau, Freeland’s strategy on climate change is not always aligned with climate science. She has supported clean energy tax credits to incentivize growth in renewables, but she has also played a key role promoting fossil fuel extraction — which climate science is clear must be rapidly phased out.