Road-tripping Liberal leadership candidate Deborah Coyne hopes to take a ‘frugal’ tour of Canada

It's a tale of two very different leadership campaigns.

On the one hand you have Justin Trudeau crisscrossing the country — on an airplane — for events in large cities in front of crowds of hundreds, if not thousands of people.

And then there's Deborah Coyne — lawyer, university professor, constitutional activist and mother of Pierre Trudeau's only daughter — who is also seeking the leadership of the federal Liberals.

This week Coyne is touring — in a car — through northern British Columbia and the Yukon and attending intimate events with Liberal riding associations in boardrooms, coffee houses and at pub nights.

She hopes to travel the rest of the country in the same manner before the leadership race raps up on April 14.

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"It's a great way to see the country," she told Yahoo! Canada News in a telephone interview after her Sunday morning 144 kilometre trek from Price Rupert B.C. (pop. 12,994) to Terrace, B.C. (11,320).

"It's a frugal way of doing it but also a way of getting out into smaller places outside the urban centres."

The road trip style tour also fits into Coyne's 'One Canada for all Canadians' political mantra which she says is the centerpiece of her campaign.

"It's all about talking about how we feel we're becoming disconnected. There's this need to have a strong national government that actually pulls us together," she says.

"I have a great understanding of this country and the need for national leadership to help Canadians feel like we're part of a bigger enterprise and...a country that we all feel part of."

Coyne proposes a greater role for the federal government in areas such as national health care standards, more infrastructure spending for municipalities and a national strategy to encourage the portability of people and skills.

She also mentions constitutional reform as an issue she would support — particularly with regards to some form of proportional representation and meaningful senate reform achieved through a national referendum.

And as for Justin Trudeau, she says she has welcomed him into the race.

"I'm glad he's in," she said.

"I'm running an ideas based campaign and its going to be up to the supporters as to who would best personify the party."

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To date, the only other candidate to officially declare his or her intentions to run for the leadership -- aside from Coyne and Trudeau -- is Vancouver attorney Alex Burton.

According to PunditsGuide.ca, Vancouver MP Joyce Murray has launched a leadership exploratory committee as has Toronto-based attorney David Bertchi.

In an email exchange with Y! News, Bertchi, who ran for the Liberals but lost in Ottawa-Orleans in the last election, says he'll make his decision about whether to run in the next couple of weeks.

"The decision making process for me has never been centered on who else might or might not seek the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada," he said.

"At the end of the day, my decision will be based on how I feel I can most effectively help bring about the real changes we need in this country and what is best for my party and country."

Other names in the Liberal leadership rumour mill include MPs Marc Garneau and David McGuinty, former MPs Martha Hall Findlay and Martin Cauchon, and outgoing Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty.

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In the meantime, while Trudeau gets the rock star treatment and the others mull their futures, Coyne will continue along on her grassroots British Columbia road trip.

Next stop: The Fluid Bar and Grill in Courtney, B.C. (pop. 21,940).