Chrystia Freeland

Christina Alexandra Freeland (born August 2, 1968) is a Canadian politician and journalist who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for University—Rosedale since 2015. She previously served as the tenth deputy prime minister of Canada from 2019 to 2024. A member of the Liberal Party, she was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a by-election in 2013. First appointed to the Cabinet following the 2015 federal election, she has served in various posts including as the minister of finance from 2020 until her resignation from the 29th Canadian Ministry in 2024.

Born in Peace River, Alberta, Freeland completed a bachelor's degree at Harvard University, studying Russian history and literature before earning a master's degree in Slavonic studies from the University of Oxford. She worked as a journalist in Ukraine and eventually held editorial positions at the ''Financial Times'', ''The Globe and Mail'' and Reuters, becoming managing director of the latter. She also authored ''Sale of the Century: Russia's Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism'' (2000) and ''Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else'' (2012).

Freeland became an MP following a 2013 by-election for Toronto Centre. After the 2015 federal election, Justin Trudeau formed his first government and she was named minister of international trade. Under her tenure, Canada negotiated the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, earning her a promotion to minister of foreign affairs in 2017. She became deputy prime minister following the 2019 election, where she also became minister of intergovernmental affairs. In 2020, she was appointed as finance minister, becoming the first woman to hold the post. She presented her first federal budget in 2021, which introduced a national child care program, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, she was part of the federal response to the Canada convoy protest, which led to the first ever invocation of the ''Emergencies Act''. She 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. On December 16, 2024, the day she was scheduled to deliver her Fall Economic Statement before the 44th Canadian Parliament, she resigned from Trudeau's cabinet following policy clashes between her and Trudeau. Her resignation led to a cabinet shuffle and calls for a vote of no confidence from opposition parties.

Political commentators have given Freeland the informal title of "Minister of Everything", an honorific previously used for powerful 20th-century Liberal cabinet minister C. D. Howe. Freeland was described in 2019 as one of the most influential Cabinet ministers of Trudeau's premiership. Provided by Wikipedia