The Member of Parliament for Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa characterizes 2016 as a tumultuous year.  Robert Sopuck says it's been a challenge to be in opposition since the new Liberal government was put in place, noting as the year went on the "sunny ways" of Prime Minister Trudeau have rapidly fallen away.  Sopuck says he finds the Liberals' neglect of rural Canada appalling because we need to see a lot more work done on infrastructure and agriculture.   He notes there were challenges for his own constituency as well, adding while area farmers had high hopes for their crops last spring an extremely difficult autumn made for decidedly mixed results by the end of the year.

Sopuck says as far as Parliament goes, the Assisted Suicide bill was quite contentious and almost nobody wound up happy with that one.  He notes the "nuclear event" of 2016 had to be the surprising result of the presidential election in the U.S. and adds Prime Minister Trudeau will likely have his hands full dealing with Donald Trump.  Sopuck says another big issue in the House of Commons this past year was electoral reform, noting the shine seems to be coming off the Liberal government on this issue as well as others.