7 stories that defined Canada in 2025

After years of steadily sinking approval numbers and increasing pressure from the Liberal Party, on January 6, 2025, Justin Trudeau announced he would step down as the leader of the Liberal Party and, concurrently, his role as Prime Minister of Canada. After nearly eight years in power, Trudeau had drawn the ire of Canadians, and the Liberal Party noticed. In January 2025, Pierre Polievre’s Conservatives had a chokehold on the polls, boasting a 25-point lead over the Liberals in December 2024. The Liberal Party knew it needed a change, and Justin Trudeau’s ousting was the glaring solution. The Liberal Party was forced to hold a leadership election in February.

On January 20, as Canada was reeling from Trudeau’s announcement, US President Donald Trump announced his plan to impose sweeping 25 per cent tariffs on imports into the US from Canada and Mexico. Trump’s announcement sent shockwaves through the Canadian auto manufacturing and agriculture industries, two areas that Canada relies on to export to the US. Canadian companies immediately warned citizens about the threat posed to integrated supply chains between Canada and the US – specifically in the lumber, steel, and auto manufacturing sectors. Those warnings were confirmed after the Bank of Canada in February, when it warned of higher costs and a decrease in foreign investment due to the tariffs.

Canada announced counter-tariffs in February, and the two countries have been locked in a back-and-forth trade war since, with both nations increasing and decreasing tariffs strategically, and Canadian and American citizens paying the price. The trade war has cost Canada and the US a combined $100 billion in lost revenue, with Canada seeing a 2.5% drop in economic output, and the US seeing a slowing in GDP growth for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. The US has only seen a slowing in GDP growth thrice since 1991: the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 pandemic, and Donald Trump’s self-inflicted trade war in 2025. While the trade war has been front-page news in Canada, Donald Trump continues to maintain that the tariffs are helping Americans, even if the numbers disagree.

With Justin Trudeau’s run as Liberal leader being over, the Liberal Party went on the search for a new figurehead. Mark Carney, a career banker, emerged as the frontrunner and dominated the vote, receiving more than 85 per cent of the voting share. Carney defeated longtime Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland, who received less than 8 per cent of Liberal votes after dedicating more than ten years to the Liberal Party. In Carney, the Liberals saw a financial expert with a global reputation and someone with the ability to combat Donald Trump. Carney’s sweeping of the leadership race came as a surprise to some, but he was ‘The Guy’ for the Liberal Party from the minute he showed interest. Carney was a stark difference to Trudeau’s laid-back persona, instead bringing staunch professionalism to Parliament.

Riding the high of his leadership win, Carney entered the political ring against Pierre Polievre, the most popular Conservative leader in more than 30 years. Poilievre held a whopping 25-point lead over Carney’s Liberals coming into the election, and he managed to lose all 25 points in less than four weeks. The Liberal Party won the election held on April 28, with a 2.5 per cent swing over Poilievre’s Conservatives after NDP, Green Party, and Bloc Québécois voters chose to side with the Liberals in order to keep Poilievre out of office. Poilievre has shaped his identity on being the ‘Canadian Trump,’ and after Donald Trump bared his teeth at Canadians in January, voters wanted nothing to do with ‘Trump politics.’ Carney won on a message of Canadian-first (elbows up, folks), and instead of running on culture-war talking points, he focused on issues facing Canadians, like the economy and cost of living prices.

Poilievre’s message backfired so hard he lost his seat in Carlton, Ottawa – a seat he had controlled comfortably since 2004. Canadians said ‘no’ to Pierre, and the voters who knew him best echoed that message, voting in a Liberal MP for the first time in more than half a century. Poilievre would win a by-election in the riding of Battle River/Crowfoot in August 2025.

With Canada feeling the pressure of Donald Trump’s tariffs, Mark Carney decided to make a statement after being elected in a historic comeback. The new PM invited King Charles to open Parliament with a Statement from the Throne, something that hasn’t happened since his mother in 1957. King Charles’ message reaffirmed Canada’s power as a sovereign nation, after Donald Trump continually threatened to annex Canada in the early months of 2025. Charles affirmed that Canada is not for sale, and his presence was a strategic move. This was King Charles’ first time in Canada since his coronation, and it marked his 20^th visit to the country with his wife, Camilla.

From August 16 to 19, 2025, Air Canada flight attendants went on strike after months of failed negotiations with Air Canada. Air Canada’s collective bargaining agreement with CUPE workers ended in March 2025, and months of negotiations ensued. In late July, a strike mandate vote began and was passed with 99.7 per cent acceptance from Air Canada employees. With thousands of flights on the line, Air Canada ramped up its negotiation but couldn’t come up with a set of terms that CUPE approved. On August 16, Air Canada flight attendants went on strike, halting Air Canada’s service completely. All Air Canada flights were halted, and more than 3,200 flights were grounded over the three-day strike and in the ensuing aftermath. More than half a million passengers were affected, and Air Canada lost nearly half a billion dollars in revenue.

On day two of the strike, the government of Canada deemed the job action unlawful and ordered employees back to work. The employees defied the government’s orders, and on August 19, Air Canada finally tabled an offer that met CUPE’s demands, ending the most significant strike-driven disruption to Canadian air travel in Canadian history. It took Air Canada a full week after the strike ended to fully resume service, and CUPE still rejected the wage portion of Air Canada’s contract after another month of voting.

In another serious Canadian strike story, nearly a million Alberta children were affected by a sweeping strike from Alberta school teachers. On October 9, 2025, more than 50,000 Alberta teachers walked out of their jobs, affecting more than 700,000 K-12 students. All public classes were suspended from kindergarten to grade 12, and no instruction, supervision, or extracurricular activities took place during the strike. As the strike continued for weeks, no progress was being made between the government of Alberta and the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA). The ATA wanted smaller class sizes, increased pay, and requested the hiring of more special education support staff.

After 24 days of strike, Bill-2, the ‘Back-to-Work’ bill, was passed, using the Charter’s notwithstanding clause, protecting it from legal challenge before being implemented. Bill-2 forced teachers back to work, implementing a $500/day penalty for any individual teacher who refused to return from work, and a $500,000/day penalty for the ATA under the same guidelines. This strike was the first in which Alberta used the notwithstanding clause to end, sparking criticism from the public and making it the most constitutionally significant teachers’ strike in Canadian history.

After shockingly busy opening months of 2025, Canadian news slowed during the fall and winter, but nearly all of the significant stories from 2025 remain relevant. Donald Trump’s trade war is alive and well, Pierre Poilievre was generously donated a seat in Parliament, returning him as leader of the opposition, and public servants continue to strike amongst rising costs and inflation.

There’s no guessing what stories will define Canada in 2026, but it’s almost certain they’ll involve Mark Carney, Pierre Polievre, and Donald Trump’s trade war.