A look back at 2015 through the prism of Radio Canada International reportage finds two names dominating the news: Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper.
For Mr. Trudeau, 2015 was a very good year, as good as it is may ever get. For Mr. Harper, not so much.
It was an election year in Canada. Called by Mr. Harper on Aug. 2, it ran 78 days–the longest since an 89-day campaign in 1872–and culminated on Oct. 19 in a landslide victory for Mr. Trudeau and his Liberal Party and Mr. Harper’s exit from the national stage, leaving a battered Conservative Party in his wake.
When, on Nov. 4, Mr. Trudeau and his new cabinet were sworn in, it marked the first time in Canadian history a Canadian cabinet featured equal number of male and female ministers.
Asked why it was important to have gender parity in this cabinet, Trudeau said simply: “Because it’s 2015.”
How 2015? The new minister of justice is Jody Wilson-Raybould, a First Nations female.
After taking power, the Liberals moved quickly to buttress their new “sunny ways” version and vision of Canada, opening the door to an influx of Syrian refugees. Logistic problems caused delays in meeting the original targets, but the government remains committed to the effort. At year’s end, slightly more than 6,000 refugees had arrived.
The government also announced that it was moving to begin making amends with Canada’s indigenous peoples by announcing an Inquiry into Missing Aboriginal Women and Girls and vowing to carry out all 94 “calls to action” by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that spent five years examining the abuses of children at former Indian residential schools.
For good measure, the Liberals announced that they will restore the long-form census, jettisoned by Mr. Harper’s government, and declined to pursue a Conservative-backed court appeal aimed at forcing a Muslim woman to shed her
Niqab during citizenship ceremonies and announced that government scientists will be allowed to share their findings with the media, something the Conservatives had banned.
After being sworn in, Mr. Trudeau hopscotched to much acclaim through a series of international meetings and led a delegation to the Paris Climate Talks after holding a First Ministers Meeting with Canadian leaders, the first in six years.
Where and how the Liberals will find the money to carry out their promises, which also include–among other things–legalizing marijuana and a healthy boost in infrastruture spending–remains to be seen.
For now, they seem determined to proceed at full pace.
How long the ride will last is anyone’s guess, but a lot of Canadians appear prepared to cut the Liberals a lot of slack. The government appears ready to take advantage of the good will while Stephen Harper watches from afar, spending most of his time now in Calgary.
If, in retrospect, Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper dominated Canada’s politics, a formidable woman in Alberta named Rachel Notley and her left-of-centre New Democratic Party came a very close third.
Understand that prior to this past May, there had been three changes of government in Alberta since 1905. Conservatives had won every provincial election since, 1971, making them the longest-serving provincial government in Canadian history.
On May 5, Ms. Notley, who has been involved in progressive causes her whole life, pulled a stunning upset, winning a majority that pretty much left the rest of Canada in shock.
Combining a razor-sharp mind with a palpable generosity of spirit, her first eight months in power have been marked by her ability to bring disparate groups together in a united fight to save an economy that relies on oil, the price of which has been in a long free fall.
She also showed up at the First Ministers Meeting with Trudeau and the other premiers with a full-blown environmental program that appeared to please every one–the oil industry, consumers and Aboriginals.
Like Trudeau, she is a politician to be reckoned with.
If Trudeau and Notley represented the best of what Canadian politicians can offer, disgraced former Conservative
senator Mike Duffy gave us a taste of the other side. Charged with 31 counts of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in 2014, Duffy stood trial in Ottawa over the course of much of the year, vowing to expose his former Conservative Party mentors.
While he didn’t manage to accomplish that, his trial knocked the Tories for a loop, contributing, many said, to the demise of Harper’s hold on power. What was originally billed as trial for the ages petered out in December with few revelations. A judge now ponders his fate.
There is no timetable for a final ruling in the case that since the Tory loss has taken leave from the national spotlight.
If politics dominated much of the news in 2015, international sports also drew attention as Canada hosted two major events:
The FIFA Women’s World Cup, won–to no one’s surprise–by the United States, and the PanAm and Parapan Games in Toronto in July and August.
Both were met with much skepticism going in. Both wound up being artistic and box office successes, so much so that following the PanAms, excitement got so heated that there was talk of trying win the 2024 Summer Olympics for Toronto. That idea passed quite quickly.
Politics and international sporting events aside, ranking right at the top of Canadian Google searches was Canada’s only major league baseball team. The number one thing Canadians searched on Google in 2015 was the Toronto Blue Jays.
In late July, after a series of trades, the Blue Jays went on a dramatic winning run that captured the attention of Canadians and, eventually, people from outside the country.
Driving hard toward the playoffs in August and September and then into the final eight in October, the Jays played inspiring baseball.
Reaching the playoff semi-finals, officially known as the American League Championship Series, the Jays finally met their match: the Kansas City Royals.
What happens in 2016 is anyone’s guess. But, if nothing else, 2015 may have been the year baseball joined hockey at the top of Canada’s sporting list of sporting loves.
One final note as we look back on 2015 and lest we forget: Homeless people in Canada scored a major legal victory in October–a victory that could go a long way in their battle for self-respect.
Citing Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that homeless residents in a tent city in the Lower Mainland city of Abbotsford can erect shelters between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. the following morning.
Citing Section 7 of the Charter, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled that the homeless–like other Canadians–are entitled to the right of personal security–a precedent that likely have far-reaching effects across the country.
The story made few headlines. But it may be worth remembering that as Justin Trudeau and his Liberals set upon their ‘sunny ways’ path, Canada could soon be a country where it is no longer a crime to be homeless.
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