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America doesn't know what role it wants to play on the world stage. It takes an outsider, like Canada's former deputy prime minister, to reveal its true colors—and its potential.
America doesn’t know what role it wants to play internationally, says Chrystia Freeland: predatory bully, idealistic leader of the free world, or isolationist behemoth retreating to its own hemisphere. As Canada’s former deputy prime minister, this bestselling author and in-demand keynote speaker forged coalitions and deals, navigated relationships with world leaders, and had an unparalleled view into the chaos that has gripped America in the last few years. Her latest acclaimed book Unreliable Boyfriend is “required reading” and “a fascinating account from inside the international political and economic tent” (Financial Times). Drawing on her storied career, she offers unique, honest, sometimes funny and always insightful talks on how the United States can be seen in revelatory ways through the eyes of an outsider, how our policies can deliver for the working people they’re meant to serve, and how this country can live up to the potential that she sees in it.
Chrystia Freeland has served as Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Minister of Finance of Canada. She is currently Warden of Rhodes House and CEO of the Rhodes Trust in Oxford, where she oversees one of the world’s most prestigious scholarship programs.
In her latest book, Unreliable Boyfriend, Chrystia draws on her experience negotiating with world leaders and navigating international crises to reveal how power operates behind closed doors and what democracies can do to build a more stable and prosperous future. Part memoir, part political analysis, Unreliable Boyfriend offers a rare insider’s account of diplomacy, leadership, and the increasingly complicated relationship between Canada and the United States. Financial Times writes that it “should be required reading for those interested in global politics and trade.” The Toronto Star writes, “Fundamentally, Freeland is defending something that’s deeply unfashionable at the moment: the values of liberal democracy,” adding that she “doesn’t have all the answers, but she asks the right questions and points in the right direction. Most importantly, she knows what she stands for—and isn’t afraid to defend it with vigour and eloquence.”
A Rhodes Scholar with a background in Russian history, she first gained international acclaim as a foreign correspondent and editor for the Financial Times and Reuters. Her first book, Sale of the Century (2000), told the story of the struggle between reformers and oligarchs in 1990’s Russia—Michael Ignatieff (Blood and Belonging) praised her as “a world-class expert.” Her bestselling 2012 book, Plutocrats, won the National Business Book Award and established her as a leading voice on global economic inequality. In awarding her the Lionel Gelber Prize, the jurors wrote that “Freeland explores consequent issues of equity and accountability with fluency and intimacy.”
After over a decade in federal politics, including a pivotal role in renegotiating the USMCA, she resigned from Parliament in early 2026. She has since served as a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and an unpaid economic adviser to the Ukrainian government.
As Canada’s deputy prime minister and minister of finance, Chrystia Freeland has had unparalleled access to international relations at the highest levels—in Washington, New York, Brussels, Berlin, and Beijing—while also traversing the union halls and neighborhood porches where elected politicians test their policies and win support for them. She’s seen firsthand how America has struggled to identify the role it wants to play on the international stage, and what that uncertainty has done to its citizens and neighbors.
In this honest, inspiring keynote, she draws on her storied career, as well as her book Unreliable Boyfriend, to describe the inner life of a political leader with unusual skill and insight. She shows us how relationships and deals are forged—how coalitions are built and how they fall apart. We see the challenge of navigating between progressives and populist plutocrats, and what happens when policies don’t deliver for the working people who inspired them. It’s a unique look into the challenges and future of America, as well as her own story of life as an outsider and an insider, as a journalist and a politician, an activist and a woman—and as a Canadian with a deeper understanding of America’s potential than many of its own leaders seem to possess.
