Reach for the top

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/01/2025 (233 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The publication of Catherine Tsalikis’ Chrystia: From Peace River to Parliament Hill was moved up from February 2025 to late December 2024 to take advantage of the maelstrom created when Canada’s most powerful woman quit her position as finance minister and deputy prime minister, walking away from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal caucus. No doubt the publishers were hoping to take advantage of the headlines to market this biography of Chrystia Freeland, told through interviews with her colleagues as well as secondary research.

After pushing through the often-overworked writing, there are several takeaways in Tsalikis’ book. First, it’s obvious Freeland is an extremely intelligent woman who is meticulous in her preparation, whether working on an interview with the rich and powerful in Russia or preparing for negotiations for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Her work ethic is indefatigable.

Second, Freeland’s affinity towards Ukraine is undeniable; it’s part of her familial history and what defines her. Her time as the Financial Times bureau chief in Moscow allowed her to closely follow Ukraine’s push towards independence. She took what could have been a minor journalism role and turned it into a front-row seat in history through her ability to make important and enduring contacts. This ability to build these kinds of relationships is indicative of her future success in federal politics.

Freeland’s parents had a strong influence on shaping her personality. Tsalikis, a Toronto-based journalist, provides considerable detail (often too much) of Freeland’s ancestry on the Ukrainian side, but her Scottish roots are also noted and, more importantly, her father’s life as a lawyer and farmer in Peace River, Alta., which provided her with an excellent childhood.

On numerous occasions, Freeland describes herself as a farm girl, proud of her ability to drive a combine. Her mother Halyna also emerges as a strong role model. After her parents divorced, nine-year-old Freeland and her sister moved with Halyna to Edmonton as her mother pursued her law career. It is here that Freeland honed her understanding of feminism and gender equality, something she committed to even further as a cabinet minister in the Trudeau government.

However, while reading about the exceptional life the 56-year-old Freeland has lived so far, it’s also clear she’s a woman with shortcomings. On several occasions, Tsalikis documents how she tended to work unscripted, without providing those in positions of authority any type of a heads-up. In some instances the outcome was positive, but in others, her actions created chaos.

The most recent example, of course, was her resignation as finance minister in December 2024, hours before she was slated to deliver the Liberal fiscal update.

Other examples go much further back in her career. When the negotiations on CETA began to fall apart in 2016, for example, Freeland, a relatively new international trade minister at the time, walked away from the talks. “As word of the walkout spread back home, Canadian officials — including Trudeau himself — were taken by surprise,” Tsalikis writes.

Eventually the gamble paid off and the deal was signed in October, but her decision to walk out was met with some criticism. Tsalikis summed it up as Freeland’s style of doing politics, “taking action she believed was warranted without looking for approval or permission.” This is a scenario played out repeatedly in Chrystia.

One example may partially explain Trudeau’s reason for wanting to pull Freeland from her key role in the finance department in advance of the Trump 2.0 presidency, before she beat Trudeau to the punch and resigned. Tsalikis provides an overview of Freeland’s contentious discussions with Trump in 2016 on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

There’s little doubt Freeland had both background and contacts to help bring the final agreement to fruition, but she also appeared to deliberately poke the bear in her interactions.

While in Washington, Freeland wore a white t-shirt given to her by her children with “Mama ≠ chopped liver” on the front, and on the back “Keep Calm and Negotiate NAFTA.” She went so far as to provide Popsicles to the reporters covering the negotiations outside the White House during the hot Washington summer. It led Trump to complain that “we’re unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada. We don’t like their representative much.”

Despite being a feminist, Freeland was not disappointed by Hillary Clinton’s 2008 loss to Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primaries, suggesting instead that the former first lady “married the right guy.”

Yet she was moved to tears in 2008 after Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke about how her political career was launched without the help of her father or husband. It’s remarkable that Freeland doesn’t recognize some of her own triumphs were very much the result of men offering her the first launch.

Overall, Chrystia is an uneven book. Far too much time is spent on the historical lineage and not enough time spent on the recent history that Freeland oversaw — most importantly the COVID-19 pandemic and the handling of convoy protests in Ottawa and elsewhere. This was such a significant and important part of the history of Canada and the Trudeau government (and, by extension, Freeland’s career).

The book could use at least one more round of strong editing to get rid of some of the cringeworthy phrasing and effusive writing (and small but irritating copy edit mistakes). But it does serve as a decent introduction to a woman who was, and is, in the thick of some of the most breathtaking moments in modern Canadian history.

And for those hoping for some interesting personal snippets: former Bank of Canada governor and Liberal leadership hopeful Mark Carney is the godfather of Freeland’s youngest child.

With her hat now thrown in the ring for the Liberal leadership, that could help make for an interesting race.

Shannon Sampert is a political scientist and lecturer at RRC Polytech.