52 Facts About Chrystia Freeland

Christina Alexandra Freeland was born on August 2,1968 and is a Canadian politician serving as the tenth and current deputy prime minister of Canada since 2019 and the minister of finance since 2020.

Chrystia Freeland was first appointed to Cabinet following the 2015 federal election and is the first woman to hold the finance portfolio.

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

Chrystia Freeland was elected to represent Toronto Centre in the House of Commons following a 2013 by-election and sat as a regular member of Parliament until 2015, when Justin Trudeau formed his first government and she was appointed to his Cabinet.

Chrystia Freeland has held a number of portfolios, beginning as minister of international trade following the 2015 election, where she played an instrumental role in successfully negotiating the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union, earning her a promotion to minister of foreign affairs in 2017.

Chrystia Freeland assumed her current role as deputy prime minister following the 2019 election where she became minister of intergovernmental affairs until 2020, when she was appointed as finance minister.

Chrystia Freeland presented her first federal budget in 2021, which introduced a national childcare program, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chrystia Freeland has played a critical role in the Canadian response to the Russo-Ukrainian War, including the implementation of sanctions on Russia and sending aid to Ukraine after the invasion in 2022.

Chrystia Freeland was described in 2019 as one of the most influential Cabinet ministers of Trudeau's premiership.

Chrystia Freeland was born in Peace River, Alberta, on August 2,1968.

Chrystia Freeland's father, Donald Freeland, was a farmer and lawyer and a member of the Liberal Party, and her Ukrainian mother, Halyna Chomiak, was a lawyer, and ran for the New Democratic Party in Edmonton Strathcona in the 1988 federal election.

Chrystia Freeland's parents divorced when she was nine years old, though she continued to live with both of them.

Chrystia Freeland was an activist from a young age, organizing a strike in fifth grade to protest her school's exclusive enrichment classes.

Chrystia Freeland attended Old Scona Academic High School in Edmonton, Alberta for two years before attending the United World College of the Adriatic, in Italy, on a merit scholarship from the Alberta government for a project that sought to promote international peace and understanding.

Chrystia Freeland studied Russian history and literature at Harvard University.

Chrystia Freeland translated the stories of locals who had witnessed covered trucks and "puddles of blood in the road" that predated the Nazi invasion, adding evidence that the site was actually the result of Stalinist repression.

The KGB surveilled Chrystia Freeland and tapped her phone calls, and documented the young Canadian activist delivering money, video and audio recording equipment, and a personal computer to contacts in Ukraine.

On her return from a trip to London in March 1989, Chrystia Freeland was denied re-entry to the USSR.

Chrystia Freeland worked as an intern for United Press International in London in the summer of 1990.

Chrystia Freeland began her career in journalism as a stringer for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist while working in Ukraine.

Chrystia Freeland later worked for the Financial Times in London as a deputy editor, and then as an editor for its weekend edition, FT.

Chrystia Freeland served as Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent for the Financial Times.

From 1999 to 2001, Chrystia Freeland served as the deputy editor of The Globe and Mail.

Chrystia Freeland was a weekly columnist for The Globe and Mail.

Chrystia Freeland is the author of Sale of the Century: Russia's Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism and Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.

On July 26,2013, Chrystia Freeland left journalism to enter politics.

Chrystia Freeland sought the nomination for the Liberal Party in Toronto Centre to replace Bob Rae, who was stepping down to become chief negotiator and counsel for the Matawa First Nations in Northern Ontario's Ring of Fire.

Chrystia Freeland won 49 per cent of the vote and was elected.

Chrystia Freeland supported seizing personal assets and banning travel as part of economic sanction programs against Yanukovych and members of his government.

Chrystia Freeland met community leaders and members of the government in Kyiv, including Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatars; Vitaly Klitchko, leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform; and Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko, who was later elected president of Ukraine in May 2014.

Chrystia Freeland was one of thirteen Canadians banned from travelling to Russia under retaliatory sanctions imposed by Russian president Vladimir Putin in March 2014.

Chrystia Freeland defeated NDP challenger Jennifer Hollett with 50 percent of the vote.

Chrystia Freeland was involved in negotiations leading up to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, between Canada and the European Union, former-prime minister Stephen Harper's legacy project.

Chrystia Freeland sponsored bill C-47, which allowed Canada to join the Arms Trade Treaty in 2019.

Chrystia Freeland issued a statement via Twitter on August 2,2018, expressing Canada's concern over the arrest of Samar Badawi, a human rights activist and sister of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.

Chrystia Freeland asked for help from allies including Germany, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

In September 2018, Chrystia Freeland raised the issue of Xinjiang re-education camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

In January 2019, at the request of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Canada granted asylum to 18-year-old Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed, who was fleeing her abusive family in Kuwait; Chrystia Freeland personally greeted Mohammed at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

In October 2019, Chrystia Freeland condemned the unilateral Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria.

Chrystia Freeland remained in charge of Canada-US relations, including the ratification of the renegotiated free-trade agreement with the United States and Mexico, roles that have traditionally resided with the minister of foreign affairs.

Chrystia Freeland took over the intergovernmental affairs portfolio following the 2019 election when she was appointed deputy prime minister.

Chrystia Freeland presented her first federal budget to the House of Commons on April 19,2021.

Chrystia Freeland described her appearance as "adversarial", and several committee members stated that she was evasive and did not offer new information.

Chrystia Freeland was at the forefront of the Canadian government's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022.

Chrystia Freeland was the first to call for sanctions on the Central Russian Bank, which were eventually imposed, and she spoke nearly daily with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Chrystia Freeland is married to Graham Bowley, a British writer and reporter for The New York Times.

Chrystia Freeland has lived in Toronto since the summer of 2013 when she returned from abroad to run for election.

Chrystia Freeland's paternal grandfather, Wilbur Chrystia Freeland, was a farmer and lawyer who rode in the annual Calgary Stampede; his sister, Beulah, was the wife of a federal member of Parliament, Ged Baldwin.

Chrystia Freeland's paternal grandmother, Helen Caulfield, was a WWII war bride from Glasgow.

Chrystia Freeland's mother, Halyna Chomiak, was born at a hospital administered by the US Army; her parents were staying at the displaced persons camp at the spa resort in Bad Worishofen in Bavaria, Germany.

Russia Insider and "New Cold War", further publicized Chomiak's connection to Nazism, Chrystia Freeland and her spokespeople responded by claiming that this was a Russian disinformation campaign during her appointment to the position of minister of foreign affairs.

However, reporting by The Globe and Mail showed that Chrystia Freeland had known of her grandfather's Nazi ties since at least 1996, when she helped edit a scholarly article by Himka for the Journal of Ukrainian Studies.