County resident Brianna Freitag has always had a unique perspective on life.
While her friends were busy in school or launching their careers, she prioritized planning for her long-term future and eventual retirement – at the ripe age of 21. Investing in a fixer-upper cottage in Haliburton County in 2005, she was determined to continue making the sort of memories that made her childhood – growing up in Oshawa but spending summers on Balsam Lake in Coboconk – so extraordinary.
“I basically grew up at my grandparents’ cottage – that was one of the main things I really cherished from my childhood,” Freitag said “As I got older and got to grips with working life, I definitely missed those days, but realized there was nothing stopping me from recreating them.”
While Freitag’s ever-evolving career in the publishing industry kept her busy – spending eight years as assistant art director with the National Post, another eight working for Thomson Reuters, and time freelancing for Lexpert Magazine, Canadian Lawyer Magazine and Canadian HR Strategy Magazine – she always found time to escape to her little slice of rural paradise.
Relocating to the County full-time in 2020, she quickly came to grips with life in the Highlands. So much so that she doesn’t ever see herself leaving – at least not permanently. “Haliburton has always been a place pretty close to my heart – it’s one of those true small-town communities that has maintained its identity, where people know and care about one another,” she said. “I feel the warmth every time I head into town.”
Trips away are a little more frequent since she began working for Up Here Magazine in 2021. A northern publication located in Yellowknife, the bi-monthly covers stories from across the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. As the magazine’s artistic director, Freitag is responsible for design, layout and publication.
She added another hat to her repertoire just before the holidays, giving herself the best Christmas present she could think of by investing in the business. She took 50 per cent ownership, alongside business partner Sherry Rioux, in mid-December.
With the magazine boasting 40 years of history in Canada’s true north, Freitag said she feels a calling to ensure it lives on. She has plans to expand the publication’s presence across Canada – starting with southern Ontario. Alongside its six regular editions, there are also six tourism-themed publications and four business specials.
“We’re trying to spread the word and get these amazing stories of the north, from the north, in front of as many people as possible,” Freitag said. “Life up there is different, and we like to celebrate that. But really, there’s not a whole lot of difference between how people live there and here.”
Yellowknife has a population similar to that of the County – just over 20,000 people – and Freitag said the similarities don’t end there.
“Every time I fly in, I make sure to look out my window and am reminded just how familiar everything seems – seeing all the jack pines, undisturbed nature. It takes me back to how I felt when I was a kid and would be driving to Haliburton.”
Like Haliburton village, which was developed around the shores of Head Lake, Yellowknife blossomed on the northern tip of Great Slave Lake. Protecting water and the environment is key to both communities’ survival, Freitag said.
Just as she’s seen, and felt, in the County these past 20 years – Yellowknifers know how to be hospitable, she said. Last winter, while hiking to a remote cabin she’d booked for the night, she arrived to find the owner cooking up a batch of fish stew. The pair shared a couple of hours chatting about their lives, and enjoying a hearty meal, while watching the Northern Lights.
“I feel very lucky that I get to split my time between two special places,” she said.
To learn more, visit uphere.ca. Editions of the magazine can also be found as inserts in The Globe and Mail.
