2025 Recap - December 21, 2025

What A Year!

I’m writing this article on December 21st, which is the shortest day of the year.  This time of year (November and the first half of December) are particularly tough because it gets dark so early in the day, around 4:30pm…and then later in the day while it may only be 6:30 at night, it feels like it’s 11PM.  Why is that?  It’s partially due to the end of Daylight Savings Time, or the “Fall Back”, which brings on the darkness an hour earlier.  That plus the fact that in Ottawa there tends to be a lot of cloudy days in November and December; that also drains a lot of our energy.  The good news is that after December 21st each day gets a bit longer, so that by January we’ve regained a decent amount of daylight.  Also, the holiday season is now in full swing. We can't help but be more joyous.  I’m not Christian and I don’t celebrate the religious part of the Christmas season, but it’s a time of year when we reconnect with family and friends, and people are in a festive mood…that brightens things up for sure.  Enough of my rant…

Let me start this article with a self-grading of my 2025 predictions which I published in this article here. 

1. Elon Musk and Donald Trump have a falling out - TRUE - as many predicted, Elon and the Donald could not co-exist for very long.  Do you think that Elon regrets spending $250M of his own money to get Donald Trump elected?

2.  Justin Trudeau is re-elected Prime Minister of Canada - FALSE - facing a serious decline in popularity, and a growing lack of confidence from members of his own party, Prime Minister Trudeau steps down, early in 2025, paving the way for Mark Carney to become leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and to lead the Liberals in the April 2025 election, winning that election and forming the next Government of Canada.

3. The Ottawa Senators make the 2024-25 season NHL playoffs - TRUE - the Senators returned to the playoffs after an eight-year absence; while they lost in the first round, Senators fans were thrilled that the team re-appeared in the NHL playoffs after such a long absence. 

4. The Boston Red Sox make the 2025 MLB playoffs - TRUE - The Red Sox returned to the playoffs after a three-year absence; while the Red Sox lost to their arch-rivals the New York Yankees, in that first round, Red Sox fans were also thrilled to see their team return to the post-season.  

5. In 2025 the Dow Jones Industrial Average exceeded 50,000 - FALSE - as of this writing the DJIA had reached a high of 48,886.86 in December 2025, but has not yet crossed the 50,000 mark, with only a handful of trading days left.  There is still hope, and perhaps I’ll be required to write a post-script to this article in early January, correcting my grade here! 

6. In 2025 There Will Still Not Be Any Consumer Products Available That Entirely Consist of AI - FALSE - one could argue that a paid subscription to ChatGPT is a software product based entirely on AI; in making this prediction, I was envisioning a hardware device that was entirely AI, such as a commercial robot available to consumers - and these are not for sale to the general public as of yet (readers - correct me if I am wrong!) However, dedicated smart speakers/assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Nest are now powered by embedded AI modules, and one could argue that these are meaningful AI products that are widely used by consumers.  “FALSE” is the appropriate grade here.

7. Electric Vehicles will not exceed 10% of the vehicles on the road - TRUE - Gartner’s current forecast estimates that there will be 85 million EVs on the road globally, by the end of 2025, out of a total of over one billion vehicles on the road, falling far short of the target of 10% EV usage.  

8. Driver-less vehicles will still not be a thing in 2025 - TRUE -   While Waymo continues to expand its’ footprint to more cities across the United States, and will introduce fully self driving vehicles to London in 2026, their rollout is not without its issues; in October 2025 a Waymo vehicle was involved in a multi-vehicle crash in Austin, TX, and in early December 2025, a Waymo vehicle ran over a dog in San Francisco. Not good! Tesla launched driverless-vehicle tests in Austin, TX in 2025, with less than stellar results; there were reports of traffic violations and accidents by the Tesla self-driving vehicles, although nothing was officially reported by Tesla itself.  As such, we are still a ways away from having full self-driving vehicles dominate our roadways.  

9. Doug Ford will still be the Premier of Ontario in 2025 - TRUE - Ford was re-elected Premiere of Ontario for the third time, in the most recent provincial election in late February 2025.  Doug is immensely popular in Ontario, and truth be told this was an easy pick to make, given Doug Ford popularity and effectiveness at leading the Province, even though I am not Conservative in my personal political leanings. 

10. The Russia-Ukraine War will end in 2025 - FALSE - as of December 21st, 2025 we are not even close to seeing an end to this conflict, while there is an estimate of 1.2 million Russian deaths alone, since the conflict began in February 2022.  In making this prediction my hope was that sanity would prevail and that someone (the United States or the European Union) could convince Vladimir Putin and his exercise in futility must come to an end. 

That resulted in a score of six out of ten…not great.  Hopefully my score on my 2026 Predictions will be higher…watch for those predictions in early in January 2026. 

In terms of items of note to me, that occurred in 2025, I shall share the following:

1. Justin Trudeau steps down as leader of the Liberal Party, and as Prime Minister of Canada - January 6, 2025.  Prime Minister Trudeau was deeply unpopular at this time and the Liberals trailed the federal Conservative in the political polls by over 20 points.  At the time it seemed inevitable that Pierre Poliviere and the Conservative Party would form the next government.  Trudeau’s resignation paved the way for a fresh, competent voice to take over as Liberal Leader, in Mark Carney; Carney was also able to demonstrate his capabilities while serving as interim Prime Minister for approximately four months, prior to the Canadian Federal election. Trudeau did the right thing by stepping down and indirectly it saved Canada from a Poliviere government.   

2. My high school friend, Paul Harris passed away, at the age of 58 - March 23, 2025.  I had known Paul for 45 years, when we first met and became friends in Grade Nine, at Confederation High School in Nepean, at the west-end suburb of Ottawa.  Paul had a great sense of humour and an infectious smile that lit up a room.  Paul was one of a few high school friends I stayed in touch with over that 45 year period.   Our families knew each other, we golfed a lot over the years and had a lot of fun together.  Paul lost an 18 month battle with cancer.  Even in his last few weeks Paul remained optimistic about a recovery and planning to be BBQ-ing in the summer of 2025.  He was not sad or angry about his situation, but at peace with whatever the outcome would be.  He had his personal affairs in order and had said his goodbyes to his wife and his children.  He was a model of grace in his final time.  I still can’t believe he’s gone, but I’m glad I had a chance to see him a few times before he passed, and say good-bye. R.I.P. Paul.  

3. The Liberals and Mark Carney win the Canadian Federal election - April 28, 2025. We are now into the eighth month of Mark Carney’s tenure as the Prime Minister of Canada, and I personally am grateful he is leading our country during this time of uncertainty and global conflict.  Prime Minister Carney has exhibited poise, strength and integrity while dealing with unpredictability on the global stage. I cannot imagine anyone else more capable of leading Canada during this time.  

4. The Ottawa Senators make the 2024-25 NHL playoffs - May, 2025.  The Senators returned to the NHL playoffs after an eight year absence, and one could feel the excitement throughout the City.  I attended the three playoff games the Senators played at home at the Canadian Tire Centre. The atmosphere for each game was pure electricity!  Even though the Senators lost that series four games to two, to their hated cross-province rivals, the fans stayed in the arena and cheered on the Senators after the series was over, showing their appreciation to players of what they accomplished, even though the season ended in disappointment.  It was a class act by the fans and the players who stayed on the ice after the final game, to salute the fans and their unwavering support. 

5. Another of my high school friends, Mustafa Ali, passed away - December 2, 2025. I learned of Mustafa, or “Moose”, passing away, at the age of 59,  through social media.  He and I had not spoken for many years, but in high school and for a few years after that we interacted a fair bit.  Moose was a tremendous athlete, having played professional football in the CFL…he was a great soccer player and hockey player as well.  Moose was always smiling and laughing, and lit up a room when he entered it.  I was taken aback by Moose’s passing, because he died so young, and he was the second person from the Confederation High School class of 1985 to pass away.  R.I.P Mustafa.  

2025 has also shown us how resilient Canada can be in face of uncertainty, and absurdity from what was once our closest ally, and how we can exude strength when bullied by a former friend.  I’m proud of what Canada has shown in 2025.  Stay strong Canada…2026 will be better!