My Take | A Canadian of Ukrainian heritage takes revenge

It’s not every day you see a journalist in a position to sanction people she once reported on. Canada’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, can now punish Russia’s leaders and their financial supporters for invading a country to which she has close cultural ties

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Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:34pm, 11 Mar 2022

Chrystia Freeland is the most intriguing politician in Canada today. The current finance minister and deputy prime minister is well on her way to becoming prime minister at the next election, if not, then the one thereafter. It’s about time the country had a leader with real brain power and force of personality.

Freeland shows what hacks like us can aspire to. Well, not me obviously, but those who are much more talented. Of Ukrainian heritage, she now gets to punish with sanctions Russian leaders and oligarchs she once wrote about in articles and books.

Ottawa is part of a concerted financial sanctions campaign by the Western allies to roll back the invasion of Ukraine. How many journalists do you know get to do that?

An alumnus of Harvard and Oxford, she was also the country’s previous foreign affairs minister.

Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland holds the hand of an infant as she speaks with Ukranian refugees in Warsaw, Poland. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

In her previous life, which was less than 10 years ago, she wrote brilliant columns for Reuters as managing editor that I always looked forward to reading.

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My Take | A Canadian of Ukrainian heritage takes revenge