2025 was arguably a political year like no other.

When the year started, a highly unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was staring down the likelihood of losing his majority government to a surging Conservative Party, and Pierre Poilievre was poised to become the next Prime Minister.

The NDP had official party status, and Donald Trump had not yet triggered a trade war with Canada.

How much things can change in a single year.

Dalhousie University political scientist Lori Turnbull says dark clouds were forming last December, but few could have predicted the relentless political upheaval and change to follow.

“There was just one thing after another,” says Turnbull after Trudeau announced his intention to step down on January 6th, “and all these different kinds of threads interwoven about Canada’s place in the world…our relationship with the U.S., new trading partners; it’s just been kind of a whirlwind.”

Canada now has another Liberal Prime Minister with Mark Carney, and Pierre Poilievre’s political future is uncertain. Turnbull says the thing that sets Carney apart from his political predecessors is the fact that he is not a career politician.

“He comes to this with a totally different background and skillset, and it’s those things that are making him a different leader. It’s not that he’s a better politician. I think he doesn’t always communicate terribly well, but the fact that he’s coming to this as a banker, as somebody who was a global leader in his own way in a different space, I think he’s bringing a different kind of leadership, and he’s connecting with people in a different way.”