With the freedom convoy, the arrival of Pierre Poilievre, and the wear and tear of power, the year 2022 has been an opportunity for profound transformations on the federal political scene, with the end of the pandemic phase as a backdrop. of COVID-19. After having had its hands full with the “freedom convoy” in February and the passport crisis in the summer, the government of Justin Trudeau now finds itself facing a major opponent in Pierre Poilievre, convincingly elected in September.
Passport crisis
SCREENSHOT / VAT NEWS / QMI AGENCY
Who says end of the pandemic says end of sanitary measures and return of travel, and not only for influencers flying to Cancún with Sunwing. Not seeing the wave coming, the federal government found itself at the heart of a crisis in the management of passports and airports, full to bursting. In June and July, monster queues formed in front of the passport offices, some having decided to camp to be sure not to miss the boat (or the plane).
The Convoy of Discord
In mid-January, after a holiday season darkened by the Omicron variant and a resurgence of sanitary measures, protesters from across the country traveled to the federal capital of Ottawa to occupy Parliament Hill, several with large trucks. The result exceeded everyone’s expectations, including the police. Few suspected that a month and hundreds of millions in damages later, the federal government would be forced to invoke a state of emergency for the first time since October 1970.
An unsuspected alliance
The spring of 2022 began with an unsuspected pact between the Liberals and the New Democrats: in exchange for their support to stay in power until 2025, the Liberals promised to accede to certain priorities of the left party, however onerous they, such as universal dental care by 2025 and public drug insurance in provinces that do not have it. “It was not an easy decision”, but it would inject “stability” into a world of “uncertainty and unpredictability”, said Justin Trudeau to justify his pact with the NDP.
A clash that went around the world
China and Canada came close to a diplomatic incident when President Xi Jinping, point-blank, shouted at Justin Trudeau at the G20 in Indonesia to accuse him of having revealed the (very) main lines of an informal discussion between the two men held the night before. Between the unveiling of a new strategy to contain China, the alleged funding of several general election candidates and suspicions of industrial espionage, the cooling in relations between the two countries has reached new heights in 2022.
A new boss (again)
The year 2022 marks the arrival at the head of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) of its most assertive, abrasive, and potentially threatening leader for the Liberals of Justin Trudeau. Popular on social networks, Pierre Poilievre pulverized his opponents in the first round, including Jean Charest, in the very long leadership race marked by contrasting positions on the convoy of truckers and the management of the pandemic.
Roxham Road
The federal government forecasts a record 50,000 asylum seekers for 2022, who will have crossed the Canada-US border irregularly, avoiding official checkpoints. Despite its some 6,400 kilometers in length, nearly all migrants opt for a small entry point known to Quebecers since 2017: Roxham Road, in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, where Ottawa has spent more than 500 M $ in facilities to receive migrants.