Chrystia Freeland

“It's public knowledge that there have been efforts - as U.S. intelligence sources have said - by Russia to destabilize the U.S. political system. I think that Canadians and, indeed, other Western countries should be prepared for similar efforts to be directed at us.”

“The one source of criticism even the most repressive authoritarian leader cannot silence is the outside world. Autocrats are usually thin-skinned and like to be admired, so at least, at first, they often seek to be praised abroad.”

“I interviewed Putin himself in 2000, shortly after he took over as president.”

“Changes which are slow and gradual can be hard to notice even if their ultimate impact is quite dramatic.”

“A thing that really troubles me about a more polarized society is that you stop having a sense of society and citizenship.”

“It's important to remember that, in the 1930s, a lot of people in the West looked at communism as a pretty good idea. That was partly because they didn't know how bad things were on the communist side of the world, but it was also partly because things were bad in the West.”

“Sometimes who is going to be taking care of all of my kids on any given day is more complicated than any trade agreement.”

“Reagan's legacy is so powerful because he identified the state as the central issue in American politics.”

“Especially among journalists, politics is not a pursuit that's held in high esteem. We tend to be cynical about it - but I actually believe in democracy.”

“Living as we do in the age of Facebook, we shouldn't be surprised that some countries are starting to imagine themselves more as social networks than as a physical place.”

“Income inequality is one thing, but a permanent division into the haves and have-nots is an entirely different thing - and much less acceptable.”

“All of us can agree that we want government to work as well as possible, and we should all applaud efforts to improve it. But there is no escaping the divisive and essential questions: What is the purpose of the state, and whom does it serve?”

“It was surprising to me to hear a member question whether another member of the House was an adult. We're all adults in the House of Commons, and I think it diminishes us all to suggest otherwise.”

“I have always liked hanging out with people and talking to people.”

“Slavery is America's original sin and was the great global injustice of that age.”

“I am a very strong supporter of our government's view that it is important to engage with all countries around the world - very much including Russia.”

“Our battle over the size of the state overlooks a problem that is just as important and that may be easier to muster the collective will to resolve: how effective government is, regardless of its scale.”

“The hollowing out of the middle class. That's not just about capitalism or the structure of taxation. That is also about the fundamental truth that machines can do a lot of things better than humans used to do. A lot of those people are being pushed down to do less value-adding jobs, so they get paid less money.”

“One of the great, and largely forgotten, triumphs of American society and government has been how smoothly U.S. farmers and their communities negotiated the creative destruction of the early 20th century and emerged triumphant when it was over.”