Justin Trudeau was apparently looking forward to a quieter 2020 than he had experienced the year before.
But the Year from Hell forced him to govern like he never had before.
Luckily for Canadians he was more than able to rise to the occasion.
And the photographer Adam Scotti was there to record the year in pictures.
Recording the prime minister's reaction to the news that the Iranians had blown an airliner full of Canadians out of the sky, and noting his clenched fist.
After that Trudeau had to deal with pipeline protests and rail blockades, before Covid-19 struck, his wife Sophie tested positive, and he was forced to go into self isolation.
Only stepping out of the house every day to brief and reassure Canadians.
“It was my responsibility to reassure people, but also to show them that we were there to help them, to give them confidence, to inform them of what was happening,” Trudeau said during a year-end interview with The Canadian Press last week.
And make sure they knew that his government would do everything it could to help them.
The Cons, their NDP stooges, and the other toxic Trudeau haters who infest this country like roaches, did their best to destroy him and Team Canada.
But somehow he survived and kept on working for Canadians.
Until at last the first vaccines started arriving, and he could tell Canadians that the light at the end of the tunnel was finally visible.
And getting brighter every day.
And it wasn't just that tunnel getting brighter...
For there he is talking to president-elect Joe Biden, and clearly enjoying the experience after the hellish Trump years.
But Trudeau wasn't finished with 2020 yet.
For he has just unveiled an amazing plan to fight climate change which has been extravagantly praised.
Even in some unlikely quarters.
Ottawa has long overpromised and underdelivered on climate change, whether led by Jean Chrétien, Stephen Harper or Justin Trudeau. Before Friday, Canada was going to fall well short of its Paris Agreement targets for 2030, but this new plan, if carried through, could change that.
The Trudeau government’s new plan has ambition that is up to the scale of the challenge. The necessity of a serious carbon tax has long been clear. It is now poised to become a reality.
So much so that some like Gary Mason are even claiming that Trudeau's climate plan will define his political legacy, and help him win the next election.
If he were to lose an election on this issue, I’m guessing Mr. Trudeau’s conscience will be good with it. At least he will have gone down fighting the good fight. On the other hand, if he were to win a majority, then his climate plan becomes his signature achievement and the defining element of his political legacy.
While many don’t understand how a carbon tax works, they do understand a cheque in the mail every four months. And it’s virtually a certainty they will start receiving them before the next election.
Especially since the polls are already looking quite favourable.
If an election were held today, the Liberals almost certainly would win it — and perhaps capture a majority of the seats up for grabs, too.
What a difference a year makes.
With 2020 coming to a close, the Liberal Party is the only federal party in a much better position than it was 12 months ago. According to the CBC's Canada Poll Tracker, an aggregation of all publicly available polling data, the Liberals are up 4.2 percentage points since December 2019. The Conservatives, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois have hardly budged, while the Greens are down nearly three points.
And he is so much more popular than all the others...
Yes, what a difference a year makes.
Tomorrow Justin Pierre James Trudeau will celebrate his 49th birthday, and will even in these Covid times have a lot to celebrate.
He is leading us out of the darkness and into the light.
And is well on his way to becoming Canada's greatest prime minister...
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P.S. If you are interested in seeing Adam Scotti's full 2020 collection you can see it here.
16 comments:
Nice post, Simon. We are SO fortunate to have had Justin as our PM during this incredibly difficult year and I shudder in horror at the thought of what might have been under a PM Scheer. As Demolition Donnie's temper tantrum is sowing complete chaos below the 49th parallel, our PM is now 49 and standing on guard for thee above the 49th. What a contrast in leaders. A majority win would be a great gift to ring in the new year as it was to have Justin Trudeau as our leader during the most trying times in Canadian history and history will most certainly be a testament to that.
Merry Christmas, Simon. Merry Christmas to all.
JD
Canadians have a lot to be thankful for. We don't deserve Trudeau but we got him. We deserve Old tool and sheer-madness but we didn't get them.
Trudeau has been an utter failure during 2020. He did not stop flights from countries soon enough. He continued to let illegals cross at Foxbar.He banned flights from Britain for 48 hours yet at least 3 flights landed at Toronto Pearson during that time. He gave all our supplies of PPEs to China. His father, Chretien and him failed to build up relationships with foreign laboratories and Canada was left behind with respect to getting the new vaccines. He is unfit to be the leader of this country.
A very merry Christmas to you Simon, and all the folks here on this board and in Canada. And a happy holiday birthday to Justin -- and Sacha -- who also got dragged through the mud by those nasty and desperate adversaries, along with their poor suffering mother. I also saw Adam Scotti's photo essay (it took awhile to load, but well worth the wait). What a helluva year indeed, and Canada is so fortunate to have a leader whose courage under fire exemplifies the Liberals' nickname. "Tru Grit."
Best wishes to both our countries now that the squatter-in-chief at 1600 Penn is on the verge of being evicted by the landlords he actually is accountable to: the voting public. Hopefully Justin does get that 1974-style, history-repeating majority win he so deserves and that he and Joe (and Chrystia and Kamala) get to not only "great reset" cross-border relations, but improve the conditions of a post-COVID (and post-Trump) world.
Hindsight is 2020, but here's to another year over and a new one just begun!
Sorry you can't pay your mortgage:
Mulrooney sold Connaught labs, thus destroying Canada's leading role in developing and manufacturing vaccines. Are you saying Mulrooney is Justin's father ?
Mortgage reversal guy spouting bullshit Con talking points, isn't there a Trump gold toilet emporium or Kushner roach motel you should be off somewhere closing a bigly real estate deal on? One-third to half your party thinks that COVID is a hoax contrived by George Soros and Bill Gates to enslave the populace with 5G microchips and a Great Reset world government, and believes masks are a clandestine plot to introduce Sharia law through the normalizing of wearing veils. Actual, prominent Con MPs are promoting this kind of tin foil, InfoWars/OAN/Rebeloid/Proud Millennial nonsense as "critique of the government." Meanwhile, O'Foole whistles past the graveyard in the name of "owning the libs."
And don't even get me started on his "proud" support of the FIPA Faustian bargain that shackled the moose to the dragon for the next three decades. Muldoon killed Connaught Labs, but I guess Trudeau the younger should have stopped him while still in high school. If only he would have handed off his lunch money or weekly allowance in a brown envelope. Call Clarence the angel to rewrite history, because it's all Justin's fault that the NRC hasn't built a made-in-Canada DeLorean so he can travel back to 1985.
Boss Harper commandeers a cosplay SPECTRE organization consisting of such luminaries as BoJo the herd-immunity clown who's parceling the NHS off to predatory privatizing vultures, and Jair Bolsonaro who seems to be of the mindset that the vaccine turns people into autistic gay alligators or something to that effect. My Portuguese is a bit rusty, so perhaps he meant we'd all be transformed into Soylent Green crocodile handbags as a result of the inoculation. But regardless, after looking at all of that, you think Trudeau is a "failure"??? Perhaps your next mortgage should be on a glass house that's merely a stone's throw away.
Weak, low-energy, dopey fake news. Sad. Yippie kai yay and ho ho ho!
Dear Mortgages for you,
You've been naughty this year. You must be following those trashy far right wing rags and listening to far right wing bags and hags to come up with that opinion on the dear man's birthday. It's Christmas for God's sake, step into the light, dump the right and you will have a merry Christmas too.
JD
Hey Mortgages guy,
Look at the mess Alberta is in or our neighbours to the South. That's what a Scheer government would have done.
Trudeau made mistakes, but I know you guys would have made them many times more worse.
You should have asked Santa for better 20/20 hindsight, reality colored glasses and taking responsibility for your own party's failures/ineptitude.
As leader Trudeau deserves credit but he certainly could not have done it alone. One that constantly amazes me is Chrystia Freeland and her ability to negotiate beneficial deals even when totally outnumbered by Cons. There are several examples but the cooperation between the provinces and the Feds on Covid is one that saved lives. Perhaps not as many as possible but certainly more than the auto Con default to the blame game. Something akin to negotiating with a flock of buzzards with Rempels and PPs sneaking up behind.
RT
Hi JD...We were indeed fortunate to have Justin Trudeau as our PM during this dark time. I too shudder to think what the heartless Cons might have done if they were in charge. Whatever Canadians might think of Justin Trudeau, he reflects our values, and has that most precious commodity empathy. Cons are incapable of empathy, and they would have presided over an absolute disaster. They are more concerned about the deficit than human lives, and millions of Canadians would have been subjected to an epidemic of misery the likes of which this country has never seen. I hope you had a Merry Christmas JD, and here's to a happy Con-free 2021 !!!!
Hi rumleyfips.... You sum up the situation well. The toxic Trudeau haters and our shabby shuffling media tried to destroy Justin Trudeau in every possible way, and thank goodness they failed. Also thank goodness Erin O'Toole and his crappy Cons have so far failed to get anywhere, for O'Toole would have used the crisis to fatten the profits of Big Business by reducing the living wages of desperate Canadians.
We did indeed dodge a bullet....
Hi MortgagesForYou....I've rarely read such an erroneous and absurd comment. Old Cons like you remind me of cult members. You believe what you want to believe, and only end up fooling yourself. Trudeau has managed the epidemic extremely well, and better than any Con either in Canada or elsewhere. And I hope you choke on your Rebel-like hatred, for the last thing this country needs is people like you...
Hi Jackie....I hope you had a Merry Christmas like I did. I had to dig down and remind myself, with Sébastien's help, what is important in life, and what is merely trivial. So although I'm making it to the 2020 finishing line crawling on all fours, I have a lot of hope that 2021 will be a much better year for both Canada and the United States. Despite the best efforts of the Cons in both countries, decency did prevail, and I am hoping that in 2021 we can make them pay for their ugly behaviour, as we work to try to build a better world. You were a great inspiration to all those who read this blog, and I can't thank you enough....
Hi RT....You make a good point. Trudeau is an excellent leader but he could not have done it alone. When I talk about him I really mean him and his excellent team, but I will strive to make that clearer from now on...
If anyone knows what it's like to be a cult member it's the members of the Trudeau cult of personality who manage to make the sheep of North Korean look open minded and objective.
Hi anon@4:44 PM...You sound like a very bitter old Con, but I don't blame you you must find the times we live in almost unbearable. We crushed Harper like a roach, we brought down Andrew Scheer in record time, and now we are dismembering Erin O'Toole after only three months. And the taking down of Trump and his cult must have been the final blow. I'm told that a lot of Cons of a certain age are killing themselves, and again, who can blame them?
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