Marco Levytsky, Editorial Writer
Canada’s Ukrainian community has played an active role in this country’s political life for well over a century. We have been most effective in getting support from elected governments on matters of greatest importance to us whenever we marshalled our talents and efforts into a single, powerful voice of the community to elect candidates and leaders most receptive to our concerns – regardless of their party affiliation. In 2006, for example, members of our community in Alberta simultaneously supported Ukrainian Canadians Ed Stelmach for the provincial Progressive Conservative leadership and Gerard Kennedy for the federal Liberal leadership. While our community’s efforts to elect Kennedy were unsuccessful, his decision, following the third ballot at the federal Liberal nominating convention to encourage his supporters to vote for another candidate (Stephane Dion) with better prospects of being victorious, proved decisive in defeating the front-runner Michael Ignatieff, a descendant of Russian nobility who had written disparaging remarks about Ukrainians. But what was truly amazing was the massive turnout for Stelmach from our community, especially in the rural cradle of Ukrainian settlement in Canada, which catapulted him from third place on the first ballot to first place on the final.
Today we face a similar challenge in the person of former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland who is expected to announce her candidacy for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada very soon. According to The Globe and Mail, Freeland is poised to join the race along with former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and former British Columbia Premier Christy Clark. Freeland’s campaign has set up a draft website and is planning fundraising events.
Due to the timing of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation, this will be a greatly shortened leadership race. Candidates must announce their intention by January 23. The cutoff date for registering in the party to be eligible to vote is January 27 and the leader will be elected on March 9. Voter registration is free. What is of particular interest to our community members in Western Canada is Section 46 of the Constitution of the LPC which states that the vote will be “weighted equally for each electoral district in Canada”. Putting it simply, that means 20 votes in a rural Alberta riding like Lakeland, can count as much as 2,000 in Toronto Centre as far as the final result is concerned. To be eligible, you must be at least 14 years old and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. To register please go to: https://chefferie2025leadership.liberal.ca/
Born in Peace River to an English father and a Ukrainian mother, Chrystia became involved with the Ukrainian community very early. After obtaining a USSR press pass based on a letter of accreditation from Ukrainian News in 1989, Chrystia cut her journalistic teeth as a Ukraine-based stringer for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist. Working with Bill Keller of The New York Times, she documented the unmarked Bykivnia graves, where the Soviet NKVD secret police disposed of tens of thousands of dissidents. This brought her under the radar of NKVD’s successor, the KGB, which tapped her phone calls and attacked her as a foreigner meddling in their internal affairs over her contacts with Ukrainian activists. She went on to an illustrious career, first at the Financial Times and then The Globe and Mail, where she served as deputy editor between 1999 and 2001. She then returned to the Financial Times as deputy editor and then as U.S. managing editor. In 2010, she joined Canadian-owned Thomson Reuters as a managing director.
She left journalism to enter politics in 2013, winning a by-election to join the Liberal caucus, and with Trudeau’s 2015 victory, she became Minister of International Trade. Freeland was promoted to Foreign Affairs Minister in 2017, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs in 2019. In 2020 she became Canada’s first female Finance Minister while retaining the Deputy PM post. Throughout her ministerial career she was a staunch and proactive supporter of Ukraine. As trade minister, she successfully negotiated the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement. Freeland was at the forefront of the Canadian government's response to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022 and was the first to call for sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia, which were eventually imposed. She spoke nearly daily with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and mobilized international support for Ukraine, especially at the G-7 level.
With Canada facing a potential economic crisis as early as the January 20 inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to immediately impose 25% tariffs on Canadian goods and keeps talking about turning our country into the 51st state, Freeland is also uniquely qualified to deal with him. As trade minister, she managed to skillfully negotiate a deal both with the fractious European Union and with Trump himself. The fact that Trump has described her behaviour during the 2020 United States—Mexico—Canada Agreement (USMCA) negotiations as “toxic” can only mean that she proved to be a very tough negotiator, which is precisely what Canada needs.
The other quality needed to deal with the incoming Trump administration is working with provincial premiers to establish a united front. She has proven she can do so. Just after posting her resignation letter last month, she called Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who was chairing a meeting of all 13 premiers then, and put her on speaker phone so the rest could hear. Many of the premiers thanked Freeland for her years of service. Even the most vociferous critics of Trudeau’s government, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, have praised her work.
But let’s be realistic. Even though the polls indicate Freeland would do better than Trudeau in the election that is bound to come this Spring, the gap between the Liberals and Conservatives remains prohibitive. And despite her resignation, her previous loyalty to Trudeau remains an albatross around her neck. While miracles can happen, the more likely result is that whoever wins the Liberal leadership will face at least four years in opposition. But after that, who knows? As Liberal leader, Freeland could conceivably get elected Prime Minister in her own right in 2029.
However, as noted earlier, it is paramount for our community to have supporters from all the major parties. Therefore, in the upcoming election, we should focus not on the parties themselves but on the individuals in all the parties who will best respond to our concerns. A perfect place to start is with those MPs who belong to the all-party Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group.
Right now, however, we are concerned with the Liberal leadership race and the need to elect Chrystia Freeland. Therefore, we urge our readers, other members of our community and all Canadians who support Ukraine in its existential struggle for survival to register with the Liberal Party and vote for Chrystia Freeland as leader. The link, once again, can be found here: https://chefferie2025leadership.liberal.ca/
The post Support Chrystia Freeland for Liberal leader appeared first on New Pathway Ukrainian News | Новий Шлях Українські Вісті.