Transport Minister Anita Anand says she’s running for re-election

Transport Minister Anita Anand says she plans to run for re-election amid President Donald Trump's tariff threats, a shift from her original plans earlier this year.

Anita Anand, minister of transport and internal trade, says she’s changed her mind and will run in the upcoming federal election.

In January, Anand said she would not run for the Liberal party leadership and would not seek re-election as she considered returning to her former life as an academic.

Anand, who was first elected in 2019, said last month that the prime minister’s decision to move on inspired her to do the same.

But she said Friday U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade threats are pushing her to stay on as she rallies the provinces to drop internal trade barriers.

She said that when she made her decision to step away, Canada was not in the “existential crisis” it’s in now. She said she made her decision before U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated.

“However, we now face threats of annexation, we are being called the 51st state and we are facing the potential 25 per cent tariffs across the economy, including on steel and aluminum,” Anand said. “I simply cannot leave.”

Anand said she has been asked by thousands of people across the country to stay on.

“I took those requests at their word and decided that this is simply not the time that I can return to academia, although I do hope one day that I will be able to do that,” Anand said. “I am a person who is in public service to contribute to the life of Canada.”