Canadian politics 2016: A year in pictures

We dipped into the photo archives to show you some of the biggest stories in Canadian federal politics this year.

Syrian refugee resettlement

The year 2016 started where 2015 left off, with the rookie Liberal government rushing to meet its deadline to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada. Immigration Minister John McCallum welcomed some of them in Toronto on Feb. 29, the day the government finally met its goal. By the end of 2016, more than 30,000 Syrians were resettled in Canada.

Climate change fight

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with his provincial and territorial counterparts in March to begin work on a pan-Canadian framework to fight climate change. The Vancouver Declaration had all premiers agree to carbon pricing, with a wide range of interpretations of what that would mean.

State dinner in Washington

U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama welcomed Trudeau and Sophie Grgoire-Trudeau to the White House for a state dinner on March 10. The meeting sparked talk of a "bromance" between the progressive North American leaders. Trudeau began attracting media attention in the U.S. for his contrast with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Alberta wildfire devastation

Fort McMurray was evacuated after a dangerous wildfire, nicknamed the Beast, encroached on the northern Alberta municipality. Some neighbourhoods were devastated by the fire, starting a long rebuilding process affecting the entire community. Trudeau and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley surveyed the damage May 13 once the danger had passed.

Senate manoeuvres

Independent Senator Peter Harder is the government's representative in the Red Chamber. After Trudeau's appointments this year, there are 44 non-aligned senators forming a plurality in the Upper House. But the Senate's rules still need to be changed to make non-aligned senators equal to their colleagues in the Conservative and Senate Liberal caucuses.

Leadership question

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair lost a vote on his leadership at the party's convention in Edmonton on April 10. Mulcair announced he would step down as soon as a new leader is chosen which won't happen until the fall of 2017.

Elbowgate scandal

The rough-and-tumble of the legislative process took a literal turn with "elbowgate"in May. The prime minister elbowed NDP MP Ruth-Ellen Brosseau while trying to escort Conservative whip Gord Brown to his seat to hurry up a vote related to doctor-assisted dying. Trudeau later offered apologized.

Assisted-dying law

The federal government's medical assistance in dying bill was prompted by the Supreme Court of Canada's Carter decision. But Price and Lee Carter, the children of the woman who brought that case, say the new law's restriction that death must be "reasonably foreseeable" for a physician to assist in it would have kept their mother, Kay, from qualifying for it. The government will review the legislation in the coming year.

Three amigos

This awkward three-way handshake between President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico, Trudeau and Obama may mark the end of an era. The Three Amigos met in Ottawa in June, talking about trade and climate change. Months later, Trump was elected U.S. president. The Republican has promised to renegotiate NAFTA and remove environmental restrictions on fossil fuel development.

MMIW inquiry launches

The federal government launched the Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls in August. The commissioners who will lead the independent inquiry are Marion Buller, Qajaq Robinson, Marilyn Poitras, Michele Audette and Brian Eyolfson, left to right.

Phoenix fiasco

Marie Lemay, deputy minister of public services and procurement Canada, right, has been providing updates on the botched rollout of the Phoenix pay system for public servants. The government failed to meet its Oct. 31 deadline for resolving a backlog of 80,000 payment mistakes that had accumulated before June. New errors are still occurring.

Havana visit

Trudeau met Cuban President Raul Castro during the Canadian prime minister's visit to Havana on Nov. 16. A little more than a week later, former Cuban president Fidel Castro died. Trudeau attracted international criticism in his official statement marking the death, for not mentioning Fidel Castro's dictatorial rule.

Pipeline approvals

Trudeau and Alberta Premier RachelNotley shake hands after the federal cabinet approves Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and Enbridge's Line 3 replacement. The cabinet rejected the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal and instituted a tanker ban off British Columbia's north coast. Trudeau credited Notley's Alberta Climate Leadership plan for making the pipeline approvals possible.

Pipeline protests

But the late-November pipeline approvals weren't met with smiles in places like Vancouver. Protesters took to the streets shortly after the Trans Mountain decision was announced. The $6.8-billion project will nearly triple the capacity of the pipeline and increase tanker traffic near the B.C. city.

Gord Downie's Secret Path

In December, the Assembly of First Nations honoured Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie for his work advocating for Indigenous issues. This year, he released Secret Path, a project that told the story of a First Nations boy named Chanie Wenjack who died trying to escape a residential school. The singer announced in March that he has terminal brain cancer.

Crowded race

The Conservative leadership race is too big for one picture. There were 12 candidates at the first official debate in Saskatoon in November, and a total of 14 for the second official debate in Moncton, N.B. The party will pick a new leader in March 2017.

Electoral reform

The House of Commons special committee on electoral reform released its report Dec. 1. The committee recommended designing a proportional voting system and holding a referendum to gauge Canadians' support. Trudeau had promised 2015 would be the last election under the first-past-the-post voting system.

Minister's apology

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef said the electoral reform committee didn't do its job because it didn't recommend an alternative voting system. She said the committee had offered an equation, the Gallagher Index, instead. Monsef apologized,but the episode raised doubts over whether the Liberals will try to implement electoral reform at all.

Health-care funding

The first ministers met again to finish the work they had started in Vancouver. Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, centre, refused to sign on to the pan-Canadian climate framework because of his concerns over health-care funding. Eleven of 13 provinces and territories agreed to the framework, which includes standards for a national carbon price.

Carbon tax holdout

The other premier who opted out of the climate framework was Saskatchewan's Brad Wall, who said he didn't believe a carbon tax would be an effective way to fight climate change. Trudeau said the federal government will impose a carbon tax on jurisdictions that do not implement carbon pricing by 2018. Wall said he's prepared to fight the tax in court.