Politics is a brutal game — so who won in 2016?

One full year into the Liberal government’s mandate to steer Canada in a new direction after a decade of Conservative rule, Postmedia’s national writers analyze the challenges, successes and failures on Parliament Hill.

Who among the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has emerged a winner and who has fallen short? Who is doing well and who is faltering?

John Ivison examines who might suffer the most under the policies of Trudeau’s government: those who propelled him to success? If so, the impact on a critical sector of the economy could be one of the big stories to watch in 2017.

David Pugliese reveals how the star has dimmed for one minister who arrived on the Hill amid accolades and great expectations but whose file now seems mired in procurement delays, hiccups and mixed messages.

David Akin reports that at least one group of Canadians is back on the sunny side of the street — just as the Liberals promised in their 2015 election campaign — after what some called a “decade of darkness.”

And Marie-Danielle Smith shines a light on three ministers who have stepped up and delivered strong performances on complex files. Their work will have major ramifications on Canada’s economy, its international relations — particularly with the incoming administration of U.S. presidentelect Donald Trump — and for Canadians, both as citizens and consumers.

OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks a lot about the middle class but if there’s one group of Canadians that were favoured by the Liberal government in 2016, it was the people wearing white lab coats.

That scientists won more money and more respect from the Trudeau government shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, the Liberals campaigned on a platform to do just that and the government has, by and large, kept those promises.

Science Minister Kirsty Duncan has been nearly invisible in the House of Commons, but she’s logged plenty of kilometres preaching the virtues of science, and investments in science, all across the country.

Duncan’s name has been on hundreds of cheques issued over the year worth billions of dollars, all made out to funding research projects in colleges, universities and laboratories.

And Duncan’s boss recently gave reason to believe it will be the same next year.

“This is something we need to do more of,” Trudeau said at a press conference this month in Montreal, where he announced billions of dollars of federal support for universities and colleges in Quebec. “We need to be basing our decisions and policies on facts, on evidence and on science. Being able to empower and encourage scientists to do the necessary research, to challenge the orthodoxy of the moment, whether it be political or elsewhere, it is extremely important that we recognize that science, knowledge, understanding is essential to create opportunities and growth in any meaningful way.”

Notably, the Trudeau government’s first act in office was to make the long-form census mandatory again. And one of the Trudeau government’s final bills tabled in the House of Commons before the Christmas break will give Statistics Canada more independence from any government of the day.

Next year, the Trudeau government expects to name its first Chief Science Officer, to advise the government on research priorities and other scientific matters.

And while the Harper government’s deficit-elimination plan meant federal science jobs were trimmed, the Trudeau government has hired hundreds of scientists.

Just before Trudeau held that Montreal press conference, his government concluded a new collective agreement with the union representing thousands of federal scientists. They got a small raise in that contract but, notably, they also got for the first time a clause protecting their ability to speak publicly about their research.

WE NEED TO BE BASING OUR DECISIONS AND POLICIES ON FACTS.