An auction will be held later this month to sell equipment on the Alberta family farm of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, says Blacklock’s Reporter..The machinery is being auctioned in a retirement sale organized by Freeland’s father Donald, 76..The finance minister and deputy prime minister, a millionaire Rhodes Scholar, has frequently invoked the farm as proof her family was not part of the “Upper Canada elite.”.“I want to assure you all I’m a farm girl,” Freeland once testified at the Commons trade committee..Freeland Farms Inc. is selling all tractors, seeders, combines and other equipment at a March 30 auction in Peace River..“I am actually very personally aware of the hard work our farmers do,” Freeland told the Commons in 2020..Freeland said she learned to drive a tractor as a schoolgirl – “I know how to keep my foot on the gas pedal” – and knew the hardships of farm labour..“As the daughter of a farmer, I worked on the family farm during the summer,” said Freeland. “.“Obviously I worked without pay because it was the family farm.”.In ethics filing in 2016, Freeland said she retained partial ownership of the quarter-section..Both Freeland’s parents were criminal lawyers and unsuccessful candidates for public office..“I am the daughter of an Alberta farmer,” Freeland told MPs last November 30..“Canada’s farmers spend the winter fixing their tractors, combines and seed drills, and stocking up on supplies..“While the ground is frozen they get ready for seeding when the earth thaws..“Like all those great Canadian farmers, the work we do today will stand us in good stead in the spring.”.Freeland’s grandfather Wilbur, also a lawyer, cleared the farm..“He was born in Peace River, Alberta, the son of a pioneer family,” Freeland recalled in 2017. “.“Wilbur was 24 in 1940 and making a bit of a living as a cowboy and boxer..“His nickname was ‘Pretty Boy’ Freeland’. My grandpa was the opposite of an Upper Canada elite.”.Freeland herself is a Rhodes Scholar with a Harvard BA and private income from a seven-figure property in London, England..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter.com/nobby7694
