Chrystia Freeland to resign from Parliament following Zelenskyy appointment

Vassy Kapelos breaks down Chrystia Freeland leaving Parliament for a new role as an economic advisor for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Former longtime cabinet minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland says she will resign from Parliament “in the coming weeks,” in a social media post shared just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he’d appointed her as an advisor on economic development.

In September, Freeland was tapped to be Canada’s special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine. At the time, she stepped down from her cabinet position of transport and internal trade minister to take on the new role, but said she’d stay on as an MP.

In a social media post Monday, Freeland said she would also be stepping aside as special representative in order to fulfill her new voluntary role for the Ukrainian president.

“In the coming weeks I will also leave my seat in Parliament,” Freeland wrote. “I want to thank my constituents for their years of confidence in me. I am so grateful to have been your representative.”

“Ukraine is at the forefront of today’s global fight for democracy, and I welcome this chance to contribute on an unpaid basis as an economic advisor to President Zelensky,” Freeland also wrote.

Prior to Freeland’s statement on Monday, a source close to her told CTV News that Zelenskyy asked her to take on the role on Dec. 22, and she informed Prime Minister Mark Carney of her decision on Dec. 24.

The source also says the position is not full-time and is unpaid, with Zelenskyy wanting Freeland to organize an international advisory council on the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Freeland is of Ukrainian descent and lived in both Ukraine and Russia during her two decades as a journalist, prior to entering politics.

In a post to X on Monday, Carney thanked Freeland for her work and described her as “uniquely qualified for this important new role.”

She served as top minister to former prime minister Justin Trudeau for five years, before resigning in Dec. 2024 in a scathing letter. Trudeau himself resigned three weeks later, kicking off the race to replace him.

Freeland then ran against now-Prime Minister Carney, her longtime friend, for the Liberal leadership. Carney won the contest in a landslide victory.

A senior government source told CTV News in September that Carney wanted Freeland’s second departure from cabinet to be very different from the first, adding the friendship between the two is genuine.

“I am not leaving to spend more time with my family or because the burden of elected office is too heavy to bear,” Freeland wrote in a letter posted to social media in September, alongside a picture of her hugging Carney. “For me and for my wonderful husband and children, public service has been a privilege and not a sacrifice.”

She said she made the decision with “tremendous gratitude and a little sadness.”

In addition to the role of Trudeau’s deputy prime minister, Freeland has held a series of high-profile cabinet portfolios in the decade the Liberals have been in government.

When Carney was sworn in as prime minister and appointed his cabinet last March, he gave Freeland the transport and internal trade files. The latter was part of a Carney election promise to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers amid a protracted trade war with the United States.

Freeland has been an MP since 2013, when she left journalism to run for political office in the riding of Toronto Centre, during a closely watched byelection to replace former Liberal MP and former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations Bob Rae.

When the Liberals under Trudeau won the 2015 general election, Freeland was elected in the riding of University-Rosedale.

Throughout her decade in cabinet, she’s previously served as minister of international trade, foreign affairs, intergovernmental affairs, finance, transport, internal trade, and deputy prime minister. She was the first person to hold the role of deputy PM since 2006.

With files from CTV News’ Rachel Aiello