It's within the rules to take a job with a foreign head of state while sitting in Parliament. It just doesn't happen

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After former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland got a job with the Ukrainian government while still serving as an MP, she was lambasted by the opposition for serving two masters.

Roman Baber, who represents the nearby riding of York Centre, called it a “blatant conflict of interest.” Michael Chong, the Conservative foreign affairs critic, wrote in a statement “one cannot be a Canadian MP and an advisor to a foreign government. She must do one or the other.”

But the criticisms against Freeland are all based on alleged impropriety, because while it’s unusual for MPs to take foreign government postings, she didn’t actually break any rules.

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Canada doesn’t have any restrictions against foreign government actors serving in its parliament. In fact, if a sitting MP ever wanted to take up a side job as a foreign head of state, there’s not really anything in Canadian law to stop them.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had appointed Freeland as an “Advisor on Economic Development.” She was already in Ukraine as a special envoy appointed by Prime........

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