The Globe and Mail | The Toronto Star
Former journalist Chrystia Freeland won a seat Monday in Canada’s House of Commons, Joe Friesen and Adrian Morrow report in The Globe and Mail.
Ms. Freeland will immediately enter the House of Commons with an important role in Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s caucus. She has already been named co-chair of his council of economic advisers and is expected to become a prominent voice among Liberal MPs.
Susan Delacourt wrote in the Toronto Star Tuesday that Freeland worked as a foreign correspondent in Kiev and Moscow, and as a senior editor at Reuters, The Globe and Mail and The Financial Times. Her husband, Graham Bowley, is a reporter at The New York Times. Delacourt reports that Freeland left her job as a journalist a few months ago to run for MP for Toronto Centre.
Since announcing her candidacy, Delacourt reports that Freeland was criticized for being a drop-in candidate to the Liberal Party from both inside and outside of the party itself.
She was also attacked during the campaign for an article she wrote in 2008 in praise of former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin — “a feminist role model” — and for her participation in mass layoffs as a media manager.
In a recent interview with the Star, Freeland said she’d developed greater respect for politicians than she had as a journalist.
“It’s hard work — even hard physical work. It’s also very exposed, in a way I think you know intellectually as a journalist, but the experience has given me a lot more sympathy for politicians.”
