The federal government will be greatly diminished by losing Chrystia Freeland. This week, she announced she is stepping down from cabinet after the PM appointed her special representative for Ukraine. She will not run in the next election.
I have long admired the feisty politician and for some time considered her as the best prospect for prime minister. Eventually, however, I came to recognize that she was too closely associated with the Trudeau years and the Liberals needed a fresh face.
She particularly caught my interest when I read her award-winning book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else which describes a large part of why democracy is in trouble. She has served 12 years in cabinet in portfolios including foreign affairs, international trade and finance—the first woman minister of finance and one of the best.
Her credentials include being sanctioned by Putin for her political activities in Ukraine and being called “toxic” by Donald Trump for her fierce negotiating of the CUSMA trade deal with Mexico and the U.S.
Prior to politics, she distinguished herself in journalism. She served in editorial positions at the Financial Times, The Globe and Mail and Reuters, becoming managing director of the latter.
She also cemented her place in history by precipitating the resignation of Justin Trudeau when, in an exceptionally courageous and principled action, she resigned as finance minister, calling out her own government’s economic stewardship and “costly political gimmicks.” Without her bold move, we might not have the good fortune of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
She is well equipped to serve as special representative to Ukraine. She is of Ukrainian descent, attended the University of Kyiv (as well as Oxford and Harvard), is steeped in Eastern European politics and history, and speaks Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. According to Chris Skaluba of the Atlantic Council, she is “broadly well thought-of in European and trans-Atlantic security circles.”
PM Carney summed up her service nicely: “Chrystia’s versatility, raw intelligence and principled leadership have served Canadians with distinction through extraordinary challenges and changes.” Indeed.