This year will mark 17 years of my moving to Ukraine from Canada. Oddly enough, I arrived on Canada Day, the national holiday, on July 1, 2000.
For all the years that I have been in Ukraine, one question consistently comes up; “Why did you come to Ukraine when everyone is trying to get to Canada?”

I have to admit that I have been wrestling with a short and to the point answer, but most often it always turns into a full conversation about how much I love Ukraine and how it has helped me find my “voice” in terms of expressing myself in business and life.

It wasn’t until I had the same conversation at a diplomatic event with a foreign ambassador in Ukraine that he gave me a clear possible reasoning why some move here from Canada and why others leave Ukraine for Canada.

“Many Ukrainians move to Canada and love that their new life is well organized. That there are laws to protect one’s rights and overall everything is structured, roads, health, schools, quality of life, etc. This is a nice and welcome change from their sometimes hectic and disorganized lifestyle they had in Ukraine.

“Now on the flip side,” the ambassador told me, “ Canadians are so used to all the rules that coming to Ukraine, they can finally feel the freedom to become and do what they dream about. The liberty to create without borders or restrictions.”

This was the simplest and most accurate explanation I had heard and it is now my go to answer when I inform stunned Ukrainians that I am a permanent resident of Ukraine.

My other favorite answer to people who ask me what I do in Ukraine is to inform them I have been an investor for the past 17 years.

“Investor?” they ask.

“What have you invested in?”

“I stayed,” I reply firmly and with a smile while others ran away in hard times.

Canada and Ukraine share a common bond, but where one fails to deliver the other picks up the slack and vice versa all depending on ones needs and how they see what the countries can best deliver for them.

My only wish is that with the new free trade deal that was recently signed, the investment that is both financial and emotional will grow closer and larger bonds between both countries regardless of one being bigger.

Ukraine will now need to stop only being associated in Canada only as the largest diaspora and a place to emigrate to, but more so as a strategic hub of great technology and partnership that will help grow Canada’s position globally and in doing so will secure Ukraine’s independence and self reliance.
For my part, I will continue to promote Ukraine to my fellow Canadians back home and to everyone else globally while pushing forward as an “investor” in Ukraine as this country has given me more than I ever imagined when I took that leap of faith more than 17 years ago.

It’s a decision, or better yet, an investment that I have never regretted making which gave me back more dividends than I could ever have imagined for myself and one that has changed my life for the better.

While I am a proud Canadian by nationality, I feel 100 percent Ukrainian in my heart.

Slava Ukraini! Heroyam Slava!

Luc Chenier has been the Kyiv Post CEO since August.