Planting a tree at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Wednesday, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga felt the emotion of returning to her own roots in Canada.

"As president, I guess I have to really pull myself together not to break into tears," she said, thinking back on the refuge she and her family found in Canada at the end of the Second World War.

Vike-Freiberga's family fled the Soviet takeover of their Baltic homeland at the end of the war, spending time in Germany and Morocco before making their way to Canada in 1954.

"Canada is a part of who I am because of the many years I've spent here," she told CTV News. "You can never take the country out of a person where they have spent a significant part of their life."

Vike-Freiberga earned a B.A. and M.A. of Psychology from the University of Toronto, marrying her husband, Imants Freibergs, Professor of Informatics at the University of Quebec in Montreal, the same year she received her M.A.

In 1965, she earned a PhD in Psychology from McGill in Montreal, and became a prominent professor of psychology at the Université de Montréal.

While raising her son, Karlis, and her daughter, Indra, she taught psychopharmacology, psycholinguistics, scientific theories, experimental methods, language and cognitive processes and wrote nine books and more than 160 articles.

But when the Soviets tried to put down a Latvian rebellion in 1998, her son joined the protests that helped lead her former country to independence. She followed him home to help, and took a position leading the Institute of Latvia, an organization that promotes Latvia abroad.

In 1999, when the Latvian Parliament failed to elect a President in the first round, she was chosen as a compromise candidate, as a highly respected person not affiliated with any of the political parties in the parliament -- and ended up winning the presidency.

Latvia's Iron Lady

Her toughness earned her the nickname, Latvia's Iron Lady, a comparison to Britain's no-nonsense former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

"I cannot be intimidated and I cannot be bought," she said, when asked about the origin of the nickname.

Vike-Freiberga's popular with U.S. President George Bush, thanks to sending some Latvian troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, and said she approves of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's efforts to improve relations with the U.S.

"Nobody wants to quarrel with one's neighbors," said Vike-Freiberga. "I think you catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

But she's argued with her neighbors, accusing the Russians of trying to interfere with efforts of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania to join NATO. That hasn't won her any friends in Russia, and will probably hurt her quest to succeed Kofi Annan as he wraps up 10 years at the helm of the United Nations.

UN aspirations

With Surakiart Sathirathai, Thailand's deputy prime minister recently ousted by a military coup, no longer a contender, she still has five rivals for the post.

Under consideration for the top UN job are Shashi Tharoor of India, the UN undersecretary-general for public information, Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid Raad Zeid al-Hussein, who played a key role in establishing the International Criminal Court, Afghanistan's former finance minister, Ashraf Ghani, Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament affairs, and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon.

Moon is considered a front-runner in the race.

Russia had flatly stated it will not support an appointment from a European country for the post, arguing it should go this time to an Asian, a position which has some support with other UN members.

That doesn't discourage Vike-Freiberga.

"It's a gesture to offer another candidacy to give the security council more choice," she said. "Eastern Europe has never been represented, women have never been represented."

Harper pointed out that Latvians have beaten the odds before. "A country of two million takes on the might of the Soviet empire, and wins," he said.

With a report by CTV's Roger Smith