Unreliable Boyfriend

A provocative and rare insider account of how a new generation of Western plutocrats manoeuvre power from behind closed doors – and how liberal democracy can fight back.

Chrystia Freeland spent decades reporting how foreign dissidents and oligarchs, from Moscow to China and beyond, exploit economic upheaval and hollow out the lives of ordinary people. As a political leader and fierce negotiator, she brought these lessons into halls of power, only to encounter a new order of global elites and tyrannical regimes – this time in the West itself.

Now, as authoritarianism resurges around the world alongside rising tariffs, economic anxiety and democratic instability, she shines a light on the current crisis of liberal democracy. With bold and unusual candour, Freeland exposes how deals are really made and how coalitions fracture when governments fail to deliver for working people, and she argues that trade, security and democracy can no longer be separated. Instead, democracies must build new alliances strong enough to resist foreign autocrats and homegrown oligarchs.

Part memoir, part polemic, Unreliable Boyfriend is a powerful investigation of leadership, ambition, compromise and betrayal, from a public intellectual with a clear view into the dangers, and opportunities, of our unreliable relationship with the United States.

About the Author

Chrystia Freeland is Canada’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Minister of Finance. With a background in Russian history, she first gained international acclaim as a foreign correspondent and editor for the Financial Times and Reuters, and later served as the deputy editor of The Globe and Mail. Her first book, Sale of the Century, told the story of the struggle between reformers and oligarchs in 1990s Russia. Her book, Plutocrats, established her as a leading voice on global economic inequality. After over a decade in federal politics, including a pivotal role in renegotiating the CUSMA, Freeland 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.