Chrystia Freeland

Early life

Freeland was born in Peace River, Alberta. Her father, Donald Freeland, was a farmer and lawyer and a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, and her mother, Halyna (Chomiak) Freeland (1946–2007), was also a lawyer who once ran for election in Edmonton-Strathcona, representing the New Democratic Party. Her paternal grandfather, Wilbur Freeland, was a farmer and lawyer who rode in the Calgary Stampede, and whose sister, Beulah, was the wife of federal MP Ged Baldwin.

Her paternal grandmother, Helen (Caulfield) Freeland, was a WWII war bride from Glasgow, while her mother was born in a displaced persons camp in Bad Wörishofen, Germany, to Ukrainian Catholic parents, Mykhailo Khomiak (Anglicized as Michael Chomiak) and Alexandra (Loban) Chomiak. Her maternal grandfather, Mykhailo Khomiak in Ukrainian, was the editor-in-chief of a Ukrainian-language pro-Nazi newspaper called Krakivs'ki visti launched in Kraków in occupied Poland during World War II, with exposure orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels himself. Michael Chomiak has been characterized by the Canadian press as a "Nazi collaborator", although he may have been unwilling to take the top position. Freeland and others have claimed that the circulation of news in 2017 regarding her grandfather's connection to Nazism was the result of a Russian disinformation campaign, nevertheless these facts have been confirmed by the University of Alberta historian, Professor John-Paul Himka.

Freeland attended the United World College of the Adriatic. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian history and literature from Harvard University and a Master of Studies degree in Slavonic Studies from St Antony's College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1993.

Journalism career

Freeland started her journalism career as a stringer for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist while working in Ukraine. Freeland later worked for the Financial Times in London as a deputy editor, and then as an editor for its weekend edition, FT.com, and UK news. Freeland also served as Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent for the Financial Times.

From 1999 to 2001 Freeland served as the deputy editor of The Globe and Mail. Next she worked as the managing director and editor of consumer news at Thomson Reuters. She was also a weekly columnist for the Globe and Mail. Previously she was editor of Thomson Reuters Digital, a position she held since April 2011. Prior to that she was the global editor-at-large of Reuters news since March 1, 2010, having formerly been the United States managing editor at the Financial Times, based in New York City.

Published works

She is the author of Sale of the Century, a 2000 book about Russia's journey from communism to capitalism and Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else in 2012.

Plutocrats was a New York Times bestseller, and the winner of the 2013 Lionel Gelber Prize for non-fiction reporting on foreign affairs. It also won the 2013 National Business Book Award for the most outstanding Canadian business-related book.

Political career

On July 26, 2013 she left journalism to enter Canadian politics as a candidate for the nomination of the Liberal Party in the riding of Toronto Centre. On September 15, 2013 she won the nomination, with an opportunity to replace outgoing MP Bob Rae in the November 25, 2013 by-election. During the campaign she received criticism for purchasing a 1.3 million dollar home, although the price was consistent with Toronto's home prices. Freeland won 49% of the vote and was elected.

As the Liberal Party of Canada's trade critic, Freeland interviewed noted economist Larry Summers in a formal event at the 2014 Liberal Party convention; the interview is available on YouTube and the party website. Freeland wrote an op-ed in The New York Times, in which she contraposed the rise of the plutocrats with the popularity of the television series Downton Abbey.

On January 27, 2014, during the demonstrations leading up to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Freeland wrote an op-ed for The Globe and Mail, in which she excoriated the government of Viktor Yanukovich. She is a proponent of personal asset seizures and travel bans as part of programmes of economic sanctions. Later, at the beginning of March, Freeland visited Ukraine on behalf of the Liberal Party, and tweeted her progress in meeting community leaders and members of the government in Kyiv. She lunched with the chief rabbi of Kyiv, met with Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatars and an MP, and with Vitaly Klitchko, who is leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform party, and with Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko, who was subsequently elected President of Ukraine in May 2014, Ukrainian presidential elections.

Freeland was one of thirteen Canadians banned from travelling to Russia under retaliatory sanctions imposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2014. She replied through her official Twitter feed, "Love Russ lang/culture, loved my yrs in Moscow; but it's an honour to be on Putin's sanction list, esp in company of friends Cotler & Grod."

In the riding redistribution of 2012 and 2013, much of Freeland's base was shifted from Toronto Centre to the new riding of University-Rosedale, while seemingly making Toronto Centre less safe for her. Then, in the 2015 federal election, Freeland opted to run in University-Rosedale, and defeated NDP challenger Jennifer Hollett.

Minister of International Trade

On November 4, 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chose Freeland as Minister of International Trade.

Freeland was involved in negotiations leading up to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. After it was signed 30 October 2016, Freeland made comments about "building bridges and not building walls".

Minister of Foreign Affairs

In a Cabinet reshuffle on January 10, 2017, Freeland was appointed to the position of Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada, replacing Stéphane Dion. On March 6, 2017, together with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, Freeland announced Canada's military training mission in Ukraine would be extended until March 2019, maintaining the 200 soldiers previously mandated by the Harper government.

Media appearances

Freeland appeared several times between 2010 and 2015 as a panelist on Real Time with Bill Maher. She has also made appearances on The McLaughlin Group, The Dylan Ratigan Show, Imus in the Morning, Fareed Zakaria GPS, and The Colbert Report. She is a frequent guest on public radio's political debate program Left, Right & Center, produced by KCRW. In addition, Freeland was featured on a panel discussion on Tom Ashbrook's On Point regarding inequality and democracy in the United States. In June 2013 she gave a speech at the TED Talks, speaking on the subjects of economic inequality, plutocracy, globalization, and "the growing gap between the working poor and the increasingly disconnected mega-rich."

Personal life

Freeland is married to Graham Bowley, a British writer and New York Times reporter. They have three children, Natalka, Halya, and Ivan. She has lived in Toronto since the summer of 2013 when she returned from abroad to run for election. She speaks Ukrainian at home with her children, English, and is conversant in French. She also speaks Russian, Spanish, Polish, and Italian, and is the co-owner, with her sister, of an apartment which overlooks the Maidan square in Kyiv.