People in Canada are very naive about the whole Ukraine situation. They act like it only began in 2022, maybe in 2014. The grand sweep of gradual NATO encroachment, the steady worsening of relations, and chances for peace in Europe that were either missed or deliberately thrown away.
At least in Canada's case, our own position on Ukraine was set by Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, taking the most pro-US and anti-Russian positions he could, especially in the Maidan period and after that. He did it because the natural position of "canadian" conservative movement is to be blindly pro-US, and second to that pro-Israeli, even pro-Saudi. This might put their more racist members in an awkward position logically speaking, but they've been "fuck logic" for a long time.
The really fucked up thing is how "canadian" conservatives now are leaning to the opposite position on Ukraine that they were responsible for actually starting. Why? Because now Trump's people in the US have done so, repudiating their own doctrines that were so openly anti-Russia that it caused the hostilities in Ukraine / Europe. How we got there was:
Start by looking at the Bush doctrine in that region - NATO expansion into the former USSR even when Russia (not an enemy yet, not even ruled by Putin yet) was dead set against it, starting with the 3 Baltic states; development of treaty-breaking anti-missile defense systems and plans for orbital weaponry; support for jihadi separatists in Chechnya; "Orange Revolution", and (eventually) Maidan covert operations to flip Ukraine from a friend to a pro-NATO adversary of Russia. Obvious that Russia would look at all that as a deadly threat, but we in the west were all told to just ignore it and pretend this was not going to result in a huge conflict later.
Traditionally, US Democrats were mildly opposed to it - the default position of the Dems was to oppose or at least reduce Republican warmongering. People like Biden used to oppose those very same NATO expansion policies after the Cold War that looked like they would re-ignite a new one and bring the world back to nuclear armed peril. HOWEVER, some Democrats were more like Republicans on certain issues, and the important one there was Hillary Clinton. On social policies and some social services, she seemed like the usual leftist Democrat, but with her close ties to Wall Street and her foreign policy stances, she was actually more like a (George W) Bush Republican. You would never know it from how much US Republicans hated her personally; that was really more due to US domestic politics in the Bill Clinton era & beyond.
Nobody expected Clinton to lose to 2008 Democratic nomination to an openly anti-war black Democrat named Barack Obama, a guy who could have genuinely changed US foreign policy away from what Bush had done. Republicans were predictably delighted to know she would not become president, but horrified to see a black president, no matter what he did or did not do. Obama did not want an ongoing policy crisis inside the Dems, so he made Clinton his secretary of state once he was president. Big mistake really, because she controlled US foreign policy and the US did not turn away from very much that Bush did previously. That included meant trying to marginalize and antagonize Russia; the opportunity for a reset of the bad relations that Bush had created never took place.
This convinced Russia that anti-Russian warmongering was going to be a threat whether Republicans or Democrats were in charge of the US. Putin also felt that Russia had been betrayed by Hillary Clinton and her close supporters in particular. Russia had already begun opposing what Bush was up to, but during Obama's time in office it got steadily more aggressive. Clinton was eventually out as secretary of state, but Obama was forced to continue most of the policies and interventions she had started, including the Ukraine / NATO / Russia situation.
What was Canada doing during all this? Well, in Canada, Harper was in charge, but his time as an eager sidekick to Bush was very short; Republicans lost in 2008 to Obama. Canada's conservative government sulked for several years, trying to uphold American neoconservatism here in Canada. When the Maidan events happened, Canada jumped in on the anti-Russia side eagerly. Harper was pandering to Ukrainian Canadians' ethnic nationalism (for votes), but he was also upholding the most pro-US position he could find, namely supporting NATO expansion into Ukraine at any cost.
In 2015, Harper lost to Justin Trudeau, Libs replaced Cons, but this did not change Canadian foreign policy regarding Russia and Ukraine at all. Chrystia Freeland became foreign minister and she was already very anti-Russian by personal inclination & heritage. (Calling her a Canadian Hillary Clinton is a bit simplistic, but the Russians certainly thought so.)
When the 2016 US election happened, that changed the domestic political narratives completely, first in the US and therefore to some degree in Canada.
Clinton was running for president again, but got her nomination over the traditional anti-warmongering Democrat Bernie Sanders; it was alleged by Sanders' supporters that the nomination contest was being rigged, and that Clinton's team were engaing in varius dirty tricks. Putin saw an opportunity for some revenge against Clinton - engage in the US-style covert election interference. Pretty clear now that Russia exposed a lot of the dirty tricks Hillary Clinton had used against Sanders, and even some that had been used against Obama 8 years before.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, was a candidate who was willing to push aside the Republican establishment's usual sacred cows of foreign policy, and that included taking positions on Russia that would be considered heretical to the party which loved warmongering except for a few weirdos like Ron Paul. Does that mean Trump was a puppet of Putin? Or just a rule-breaker who thought the enemy of Clinton could be his friend? Debate continues. Did Putin's actions actually sink Hillary's campaign, or was it really just something that confirmed something to Americans who already disliked her ? Debate continues.
What is not really debateable is the aftermath of the US 2016 election. Democrats (at least the non-Bernie supporters) became as bitterly anti-Russian as it is possible to be, and converted themselves fully into the "national security" (warmongering) party. Look at Biden and you'll see a 180 degree shift from the days when he used to warn against NATO expansion because of the possible war with Russia. 2016+ Dems look like pre-Trump Republicans. On the other hand, Republicans (who had hated Russia as holy gospel before 2016) were so delighted to see Hillary Clinton fail, that they started to reject America's anti-Russian policies, and were almost in love with Putin himself for doing such harm to western liberalism.
In the US, Putin is now portrayed as a boogeyman who opposes Dems, where before he was the boogeyman who opposed the GOP. It really has more to do with how US domestic politics works - if the other side is for something, you must therefore be against it. If they want to fight Russia, you must therefore praise Russia, even if you wanted to fight Russia before. Consistency does not matter, consequences do not matter; All that matters is to make your domestic opponent lose instead of win.
So what how did this affect Canada's position regarding Russia and Ukraine?
Well, up to 2015 we were anti-Russia and pro-NATO, because this is what US Republicans wanted and therefore what Harper/conservatives wanted.
After 2015, under the Liberals we were officially anti-Russia and pro-NATO because this is what Chrystia Freeland wanted and the legacy of what Hillary Clinton wanted.
After 2016-2020, Canada just continued this anti-Russia / pro-NATO stance under Freeland & whomever replaced her for the Libs. It also helped them say they were standing up for western democracy (while Trump caused NATO grief).
After 2020 with Biden as US president, the Liberals could just continue without any friction from the US.
The net effect is that for several years now, we've had a Canadian Liberal government steadfastly upholding what was a Conservative foreign policy position, using sanctions, armaments, and even our own troops. (Do Libs get any credit from CPC supporters for continuing what Harper started? Of course not.)
However, the conservatives under Poillievre are having a tougher time figuring out what to do or say.
They usually want to do what benefits the US strategic community, which is to oppose Russia and promote US interests through NATO, and they do not want to openly flipflop on a foreign policy stance which Harper actually started - and there are still many Ukrainian Canadians they fear losing the votes of.
However, US Republicans since Trump have increasingly opposed the "Ukraine is good; Russia is bad" NATO narrative, and CPC supporters are just hard-wired to follow that.
They also oppose any policy of the Trudeau Liberal government just because. If Liberals drink water, they must drink sand. If Trudeau rescued a baby from a fire, they would throw a baby into a fire. That's how they think.
However, most Canadians do not ever think about this. Even if it all happened right before their eyes, they have no memory of these decisions being made or why, and they certainly never question it to this degree of depth. Partisan politics gives the party leaders a chance for mud slinging and ethnic group pandering, but if they express any actual differences of opinion, it will not be anything deep or strategic.