I think it's fair to say that neglect of VIA has been a bipartisan affair for quite some time. It was hit hard during the Chretien/Martin cost-cutting era and then again under Harper.
That said, I'd be a little more optimistic about its fortunes under Trudeau. This is a PM who represents a deeply urban riding and with a deeply urban political base -- more so than Chretien, thanks to the addition of new seats. And who's said he'll work closely with two premiers (Wynne and Couillard) who are both big boosters of rail. I don't think we're about to see some gold-plated HSR plan, but some good news for VIA over the next few years seems very likely.
I mean really, this has been happening since the 80's. The entire purpose of ViaRail was to save rail transit from declining service: CN and CP were not making money on it and they simply did not want to do it anymore.
The entire creation of Via was to ensure that rail transit still existed, but whenever you create a crown corporation to ensure something doesn't disappear completely, it will always be a "bare bones" service.
That being said, we are finally in an era where train travel is looking more and more like a viable option for getting around for various reasons (population growth, urbanization, environmentalism)
While I would like to see ViaRail bring back all the services lost over the years, I would like to see them be smarter about it.
Absolutely there should be transit to low-ridership areas, any government funded agency should try and fairly service everyone in the country. However, Via should purchase small DMU's like whats used on the UPX for this service. I used to take the train to Sarnia and would laugh at our tiny 2 car train being hauled by a huge GE Genesis. What a waste!
However important services to fringe communities are, the focus right now should be on the Corridor and getting everything ready for High Speed services. The corridor is what helps fund all these fringe services. That being said, the current trains on the Corridor aren't even hitting their maximum speeds yet, and the focus should be first on creating dedicated trackage so that the current rolling stock Via has can actually hit its 99MPH speed limit.