Who is Tulsi Gabbard, and why might Western intelligence agencies be uneasy with Trump's pick?

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said this week that while some members of the incoming Donald Trump cabinet may have different views on various policy issues than the Canadian government, it wouldn't prevent a "respectful and effective relationship between the two countries."

But the elevation of Tulsi Gabbard to director of national intelligence (DNI) in Trump's second U.S. administration could cause "a lot of headaches" for Western allies, according to at least one analyst.

Stephanie Carvin, an associate professor of international relations at Carleton University in Ottawa who previously worked as a national security analyst, in an interview with CBC News, said Canada should be concerned given "we've decided to really outsource a lot of our intelligence gathering from the United States."

When Ukraine first came under attack from Russia in February 2022, Gabbard said it marked the Joe Biden administration's failure to acknowledge "Russia's legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine's becoming a member of NATO."

She then said weeks later that it was an "undeniable fact" that there were several U.S.-funded bioweapons labs in Ukraine that could "release and spread deadly pathogens."

The first contention as to the reasons for Russia's aggression deviates from the view of the current U.S. administration and its Western allies, who have provided military aid to Ukraine, while the second reflects Gabbard's susceptibility, in Carvin's words, to "straight-from-the-internet conspiracy theories."

Elsewhere in the world, Gabbard has espoused opinions that have ranged from merely contrarian — she said that Trump meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was a positive development — to out of left field, questioning Japan's desire to evolve from strictly defensive military capabilities, "given Japan's aggression in the Pacific" in the Second World War.

In January 2017, Gabbard freelanced while a Democratic member of Congress, meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In April of that year, Gabbard said she was "skeptical" Assad had launched a chemical weapons attack on Syrians, even as the first Trump administration expressed a "very high level of confidence" that was the case.

"Assad is not the enemy of the United States, because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States," Gabbard told MSNBC nearly two years later as she plotted a long-shot presidential bid.

Canada, and agencies including the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP, could be in a precarious position with Gabbard in such a critical role. Canada "receives more from the Five Eyes alliance than it sends to that alliance," a report on foreign interference commissioned by the government stated last year of the group that also includes the U.S., Australia, Britain and New Zealand.

"I don't think it's going to be the end of the [Canada-U.S.] relationship, I don't think it's going to be the end of the Five Eyes," Carvin said. "Will there be a lot more consideration of what is passed on and how it is shared, and under what circumstances? I have no doubt that will probably be the case if she is confirmed."

While Democrats are unsurprisingly alarmed by her nomination — Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Thursday on CNN that Gabbard "has so clearly been in [Vladimir] Putin's pocket" — some conservatives are also cautioning against the pick, including former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger and onetime Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.

"With his announcement of Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence, he's sending a signal that we've lost our mind when it comes to collecting intelligence," Bolton told NewsNation on Wednesday of Trump's choice.

Bolton said Gabbard should get a thorough FBI vet beforehand "given the Russia propaganda that she has espoused."