OTTAWA – As a journalist, and as a woman, Chrystia Freeland would have relished the opportunity to write about the appointment of the first female finance minister in Canadian history. But as a politician, it is 52-year-old Ms. Freeland who has made history as that person – with the added point that she is the first Ukrainian Canadian to serve in that role and now unquestionably the second-most powerful and influential member of the Canadian government after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It was the prime minister who, on August 18, added the finance portfolio to the Cabinet responsibilities of Ms. Freeland, already Mr. Trudeau’s deputy prime minister, following the sudden resignation, the day before, of Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who has been embroiled in a controversy over his ties to the WE Charity.