As we round the corner of this horrid, no good, very bad year, it's time for the annual "winners and losers" list of Canadian politics. 

Winner

Chrystia Freeland has gone from strength to strength.  Foreign minister who saved NAFTA, then roving fixer with the provinces and "Minister of Everything", she is now Deputy PM and Minister of Finance — effectively the equivalent of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's vice-president and treasury secretary all in one.  And, she's delivering a steady focus on digging out of the pandemic-caused recession. 

Loser

Oppositions leaders not named Rachel Notley across the country are making asses of themselves.  Desperate to cut into headlines dominated by first ministers' daily briefings, Opposition leaders have contorted themselves — "Open the schools at all costs!  No, wait, close the schools!" stands out as a particularly bad example — made silly social media videos, ratcheted up the rhetoric and otherwise looked like ankle-biters.

Winner

Alberta's Rachel Notley stands out as the exception to the Opposition malady.  She's prosecuted a steady, focused case against Premier Jason Kenney.  Of course, it helps she has a track record in governing voters can recall and contrast to Kenney.  She's a living argument that maybe the old-fashioned tradition of letting leaders rebuild after a loss isn't always a bad idea. 

Loser

By the same token, Premier Kenney stands out as the exception to the Francois Legault, John Horgan and Doug Ford "Premier Dad" polling bump (Brian Pallister is a close second on this count to Kenney).  There's no place for libertarian ideologues in a pandemic, and Kenney's delayed, laissez-faire approach to the pandemic simply did not work. 

Winner 

Anita Anand and Marc Miller — Ministers of Procurement and Indigenous Services, respectively — are emerging as diligent, reliable workhorses in the cabinet.  They aren't flashy, they aren't always flawless, but they do move the ball down the field, steadily and consistently. 

Loser

Andrew Scheer makes my list yet again.  Although he lost an election against a damaged Trudeau many thought he might have won in 2019, his hypocritical, scandal-prone and weak hold on his party during his disastrous interim leadership gig — and the bad headlines he earned even after Erin O'Toole took the driver's seat — put him back on the loser list this year.

Winner

The Herle Burly podcast — David Herle, Scott Reid and the one-and-only Jenni Byrne — are a must-listen "commotion" of political insights, anecdotes and outrageously loud laughs. 

Loser

Boris Johnson — he got Brexit done, and now has to live with what that means for the UK economy, for UK tourists suddenly limited in their travel, for students ripped out of the Erasmus exchange program, and for the union of the United Kingdom as Scotland and Northern Ireland pull further away from Westminster, and Wales and the English regions start to wonder about their own internal autonomy more and more.  And his chief advisor had to be canned after making more headlines than the PM.  And he got COVID-19 wrong, until he got it himself and had a change of heart.

Winner-in-Training

If Boris has seen 2020 as a slow-boil set of crises, the new Labour leader Kier Starmer seems to have Boris worried with his methodical, prosecutorial style. 

Winner

Kamala Harris.  First female and Black vice-president.  Likely Democratic presidential nominee in four years.  Tough as nails.  Stylish and savvy.  She's one to watch as the Joe Biden administration takes the reigns on January 20th. 

Loser 

Donald Trump lost the popular vote by millions in 2016.  He was impeached.  He lost the popular vote by more millions in 2020.  He lost the electoral college by the same margin he called a "landslide" in 2016.  Then he lost, over and over again as recounts, litigations and the electoral college let Joe Biden make more victory speeches than any other US presidential winner in history. 

Winner

Medical professionals, teachers, grocery store workers, truckers — all the unsung heroes of our daily lives are the real heroes during this pandemic.  Thank you, is all I can say.

Photo Credit: Jeff Burney, Loonie Politics