Rosie and Elamin answer your burning questions as 2020 comes to a close, including: How is this vaccine rollout gonna go? Are we more or less divided than last year? What might the new year hold for federal parties? And: what are you gonna order when the pubs all open up again? The two take a moment to look back at the year that was, before taking some much-needed time off over the holidays — but know that Party Lines will return the first week of January.

Party in the U.S.A. is about to take a short break for the holidays — but before we go, we’ve got to talk about Georgia.

On January 5th, Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler will face off against Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in two really important races that will basically decide who gets to control the U.S. Senate. And by extension, of course, Senate control will shape how much Joe Biden will actually be able to get done once he’s in office next month.

With the stakes so high and the date so close — not to mention Donald Trump's ongoing refusal to concede — the political climate in Georgia has been getting really tense, to say the least. To help set the stage, Elamin calls up Georgia Democratic State Senator Jen Jordan and Republican former state representative Buzz Brockway. He also calls up Ella Nilsen from Vox for some added perspective.

They did it — just like that, Health Canada approved the Pfizer vaccine before even the U.S. did, becoming the third country to give it the green light. But this is hardly the end of the road. Now comes the transportation, the distribution, the getting needles into arms… and while the feds got to announce the good news this week, it’s the provinces who’ll be taking on a lot of the work from here. Elamin and Rosie dive into what this week’s vaccine approval means for the Liberal government, the premiers, and the opposition Conservatives, who’ve been pushing back hard on the government’s vaccine rollout plan. And speaking of premiers: the two also look at Thursday’s big meeting between the Prime Minister and the provinces. Premiers are lining up a pretty big ask, in demanding an increase to federal health transfers — will Ottawa pony up?

The holidays, like everything else, are going to be different this year. Many will be coping with the loss of a loved one. Others who've lost their jobs will be struggling to put food on the table. And in just a few weeks, about two dozen federal aid programs are set to expire. Experts are predicting widespread hardship in the U.S., unless something is done.

This is the context in which the Democrats and Republicans are negotiating a brand new stimulus package. Today Elamin calls up Marissa Evans, who covers social issues for the Star Tribune, as well as Nikita Stewart, assistant editor for The New York Times, who has covered food insecurity extensively.

Larger deficit? Check. Some stimulus funding, down the line? You bet. A fully fleshed-out plan to support more women through the “she-cession”? Not exactly. Rosie and Elamin map out where expectations didn’t quite match up with reality in this week’s federal economic update, billed as a glimpse into the government’s plans to shape a post-pandemic recovery. Perhaps what’s most apparent following the update is where political parties stand, as the Conservatives used the opportunity to press the Liberals on a vaccine rollout plan and the Prime Minister knocked the previous government’s handling of the 2008 recession. As Elamin and Rosie point out, there’s plenty here to fight the next election over.

Things have been moving quickly since Joe Biden’s transition team got the long-awaited access they need to reboot the U.S. Government. The President-Elect has already formally announced some of his cabinet picks. And now we have a pretty good idea of what his foreign policy and national security team is going to look like. There are also some names trickling out on the domestic front.

John Kerry. Jake Sullivan. Janet Yellen — and those are just the Js. These are the people now tasked with getting a grip on the surging coronavirus in the U.S., fixing the economy and restoring the U.S.'s global reputation.

So, what do we need to know about the team starting on this daunting to do list? Elamin calls up Josh Wingrove, White House reporter for Bloomberg News, and Jen Kirby, foreign and national security reporter for Vox, for a bird-eye view of the incoming flock.

If you’re feeling a little déjà vu, you’re not alone. Rosie and Elamin feel it, too. The Prime Minister has returned to the front steps of his home to deliver regular addresses to Canadians… just like he did, back in March. Has his message changed? Are people listening? The two take stock of Trudeau’s move as more provinces enact stronger public health measures. They also look ahead to next week’s big numbers — the ones that have been growing since March: the ballooning federal deficit. Next Monday, the government will deliver their economic update, which Elamin and Rosie point out is less likely to include sweeping recovery plans and more likely to spell out how the feds hope to manage the next stage of the pandemic.

President-Elect Joe Biden can now formally begin the transition process, but that doesn’t mean Trump is giving up the fight. Trump’s legal team is forging ahead with a string of court battles, despite a growing number of both legal losses and high-profile Republicans coming out in support of the handover.

This is far from the end of the story. Biden-Harris and their transition team face the difficult task of tackling a pandemic that is raging on and preparing for a complicated vaccine rollout. They’re also working to install new cabinet picks that will shape how the incoming government handles the remaining bumps in the road.

To make sense of this moment, Elamin calls up two friends of the show: Sabrina Siddiqui of The Wall Street Journal, and Hayes Brown of MSNBC Daily.

It’s a question at the top of Elamin’s mind, and it’s even the Last Call question for the week: who do you look to for public health advice, as you figure out how to go about your day during the pandemic? Do you tune into local guidance? Or are you more often paying attention to what your province or territory has to say — whether it’s coming from a premier, or a top doctor? And what if their messaging sometimes differs? Elamin and Rosie explore how some premiers have recently responded to criticism over divergent recommendations, and examine what it takes to delicately balance public health advice and government directives.

Plus, the two pick up where they left off last week, on vaccines: now that two of Canada’s procurement orders are promising candidates, how is the federal government preparing to distribute a future vaccine all across the country? (Turns out… it involves buying a lot of freezers.)

It has now been a week since U.S. media networks called the election for Joe Biden. At this point, Biden’s powering ahead with the transition as much as he can. But Donald Trump still has not conceded. And he's still saying, without evidence, that the election was stolen from him. And not only is he talking (and tweeting) about it, he's also fighting the outcome in court and purging top officials.

Although several Republicans believe a formal transition process should begin, few are actually challenging Trump’s narrative. It all raises the question: where does their party go from here, knowing that more than 73 million Americans voted for Trump?

Elamin calls up two major figures associated with the Republican Party to discuss: Rick Wilson, strategist and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, and Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.