rogressive politics in Canada looked bleak at the end of 2024. For months, polling had indicated that a conservative movement was ascendant in Canada, mirroring Donald Trump’s return to the American presidency. After a long period of Liberal Party rule, there was a sense of overwhelming frustration with the status quo, in particular with its long-time figurehead, Justin Trudeau.
As someone whose last vote for the Liberals in 2015 delivered on its promise of weed legalization but betrayed the loftier goal of electoral reform, I count myself as one of those frustrated people. So when Justin Trudeau announced his resignation on January 6th – a day that is now associated with an attempted fascist revolt, but that historically marked the Christian holiday Epiphany – I was thrilled. I wasn’t the only one. At the time, polling from Ipsos indicated that 81% of Canadians approved of the decision to resign. Now, the Liberal support has more than doubled from 20% to nearly 45%, according to 338 Canada’s poll tracker.
It’s important to stress that being happy to see Trudeau leave does not equate to loving Mark Carney as the Liberal leader. Carney may be a shrewd economist and useful sparring partner against Trump, but his long history with some of the most exploitative multinational corporations in the world – such as Brookfield and Goldman Sachs – have not yet been deeply explored.
That being said, doesn’t it just feel good to make the big change?
In fact, as I look across the leaders of virtually every federal political party in Canada, I had an epiphany of my own. There is only one wish that I have for Canadian politics in 2025: Every party should throw out their leaders, and the people of Canada should take charge of their futures.
Let’s take the example of the party who should have managed to gain at least some of the momentum from the anti-Trudeau and pro-change rhetoric, the New Democratic Party (NDP). Under Jagmeet Singh, the NDP has been on a decade-long slide into incoherence. His party is now unlikely to hold official party status after Monday. Singh is also flirting with third place in Burnaby Central, with a 10% chance of holding his seat according to 338 Canada’s poll aggregator.
Swapping out the leader is not going to fix the NDP. The structure of the party’s corporate wing has served to stifle any criticism, with executive staff like National Director Lucy Watson left as bottlenecks to a more functionally democratic organization. There is also the ongoing issue of former leader Tom Mulcair’s heel turn as a political pundit outright advocating on CTV News for a two-party system.
Even with those caveats, a lot of the blame rests squarely on Singh’s own inability to articulate a vision for his party that resonates with working class people across Canada. Whether he holds the seat or not after election night, he should resign as leader so that a clear-voiced progressive can put forward a genuine alternative for Canadians to consider and believe in.
Singh is not the only one who has been unable to take advantage of the current political moment. The departure of Trudeau and the removal of the consumer carbon tax has all but neutered the main messages of the most message-disciplined Canadian politician since Stephen Harper – Pierre ‘Skippy’ Poilievre. Having spent decades as an attack dog in Parliament, and years sharpening his knives for a triumph over Trudeau, Poilievre has lost the plot.
Frankly, this is a relief for the majority of Canadians, even some who were considering holding their nose and voting Tory just a few months ago. Poilievre is even beginning to look vulnerable at home, as polling aggregation is showing the Liberal’s Bruce Fanjoy has a slim chance of victory in the Carleton riding. While not likely to lose outright, I would expect that the infighting we have seen between senior advisors Jenni Byrne and Kory Teneycke is the beginning of a revolt against Poilievre’s leadership. This would mark the end of a leader who has steered an already misguided Conservative Party towards the 12-15% of polled Canadians who have fallen under the spell of American-style fascism.
After an attempt at an orderly transition to Annamie Paul ended in disaster, the Green Party of Canada turned to a novel concept of a co-leader model, which has been used successfully in Quebec and abroad. However in this case, it has been an awkward half-step and it has failed to get off the ground. Jonathan Pedneault may still have potential as a young, intelligent Francophone leader, but the co-leader structure was made a farce as soon as one of the spots was taken by long-time leader Elizabeth May.
The inherent power imbalance between a rookie politician and one of the most senior parliamentarians in Canada was never going to provide the balanced approach that people would want to see from a co-leadership, and now they find themselves off the debate stage and out of the picture entirely. Even with a real chance in three seats, ironically a high water mark for the party, they are making less of an impact on the political discourse than ever before. A new logo does not equal a new vision, and the Green Party needs to finally and completely move on from the Elizabeth May era in order to grow again.
Finally, this year should absolutely mark the end of the inclusion of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) as a relevant player in Canadian politics. Despite the convoy in 2021 and the rise of fascist politics down south, the PPC has never mattered less. We should all be thankful to see them go. Maxime Bernier, the one and only leader of the party, has more or less retired to the countryside in Beauce, seemingly happy to preach to a dwindling crowd.
In fact, the only thing of value that people should take from the PPC experiment is proof that creating a new political party in the 21st century is not only possible, it is easier than you’d think!
With just two years from Bernier losing the Conservative leadership race in 2017, the PPC – a definitionally fringe party with loathsome politics – was able to run a nearly full slate of candidates in the 2019 election. Two years after that, they were able to double their share of the vote, and multiple candidates passed the 10% threshold that allowed them to recoup expenses from Elections Canada. They have thankfully hit their ceiling now, but imagine what a new party with genuinely popular politics could do?
Fewer than 5% of Canadians have ever been members of a political party, and fewer still vote in leadership races or get involved with a local electoral district association. It only takes a few individuals to create a meaningful movement in Canadian politics. Whether it is through popular support transforming some or all of the existing parties, or by creating a whole new progressive political movement, there is an immense open landscape for our voices to be heard.
Change is not always the solution to a problem. Far too often, giving into our animal instincts in politics leads us further down a path towards instability, infighting and self-sabotage. Taken to an extreme, too much change can also contribute to a sense of apathy and nihilism with the political system – because if each election is always simply a choice between bad options, then why bother participating at all?
However, when it is combined with intention and engagement – when people don’t simply rip down the old towers, but build new foundations – we create the environment for a healthy and vibrant democracy, one that empowers average citizens to see themselves reflected in their politics. It is a rare moment for all of the political parties to be at a similar moment of transition, and that is why 2025 is exactly the time for regular people to take control of their future.
