Another floor-crossing bookends a transformational year in Canadian politics
CBC
To illustrate the incredible upheaval that federal politics in Canada has experienced over the last 12 months, one could do worse than to simply look at the last two Liberal caucus holiday parties.
A year ago, the Liberal caucus — then numbering 152 members — gathered just a day after Chrystia Freeland's stunning resignation from cabinet. Justin Trudeau tried to keep up appearances — "Like most families, sometimes we have fights around the holidays," he joked — but the end of his time as prime minister was now clearly in sight.
A poll published by Abacus Data earlier that month showed Trudeau's Liberals trailing Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives by 23 points and leading Jagmeet Singh's NDP by just one.
On Thursday night, Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the Liberal caucus. It now numbered 171 members — indeed, partway through his remarks, Carney introduced the latest addition, Michael Ma, who until a couple hours earlier had been the Conservative MP for Markham-Unionville.
On its own, Ma's arrival is obviously not nearly as seismic as Freeland's departure. But for narrative purposes, their dramatic moves neatly bookend a remarkable year for Ottawa and the country.
And you may ask yourself, how did we get here?
The simplest answer is Donald Trump. Everything, to some extent or another, flows downstream from that.
The spectre of Trump was part of the story in Freeland's resignation and it was implicit in the statement Ma released on Thursday evening.
"This is a time for unity and decisive action for Canada’s future," he said.
Trump's arrival, in tandem with Trudeau's exit, reframed the national discussion and changed the ballot question, at least for many Canadians.
The simple result of Trump's arrival was a Carney government.
But even while Trump fundamentally reshaped the federal election, Carney's Liberals still had to win that contest, and Poilievre's Conservatives still had to lose it. And both deserve full credit for doing so.
The consequences of that election result are numerous and varied, but include the apparent fact that Carney has fashioned a government which at least two now-former Conservative MPs felt comfortable supporting. If many voters thought the election was about Trump, a lot of other voters thought the election was about change. And Carney seems willing to offer at least some measure of change.
And where Poilievre once seemed poised to lead the Conservatives to a smashing majority in the House of Commons, he is now apparently struggling to hold his caucus together.
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The dream of those who wanted to breathe new life into Saskatoon’s bus barns in Caswell Hill is expected to come tumbling down next year.
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The Ontario government has sided with the City of Hamilton in its push to continue a long-delayed James Street N., housing redevelopment, which proposes the creation of several hundred homes in the north end.
There's still no timeline on the official designation of an Ojibway National Urban Park — and a Parks Canada representative is asking the community to adjust its expectations.
As the cost of groceries continues to increase, one Edmonton organization is harnessing the power of bulk buying to ensure its members aren’t going hungry at a critical time every month.
A drug alert has been issued in Thunder Bay, Ont., over a toxic substance first found in Toronto earlier this fall.
Ontario’s municipal affairs minister says the province will move forward with a much-delayed mandatory review of the Greenbelt, but opposition critics say there's still no word on when the study of the ecologically sensitive zone will take place or who will conduct it.
A three-year-old girl is dead and a 31-year-old woman suffered serious injuries after they were hit by a vehicle near a Cambridge, Ont., plaza on Thursday afternoon.
Roy Weistche recalls being taken as a young boy to stay with a non-Indigenous family in Gatineau — people he had never met, more than 900 kilometres away from his home in the Cree Nation of Waskaganish.
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