The tale of the two main national political leaders requires a seasonal update of the file. Metaphors are in order, data comes in handy.

First, it is not that Prime Minister Mark Carney is enjoying a honeymoon. This is more like the phase in which you find out your partner favours the same toothpaste, drives neither recklessly nor tepidly, and also likes evening TV instead of reading. In other words, as polls indicate, his priorities generally align at the moment with the environment in which he finds himself.

As for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, it’s as if he’d been running a pretty successful sports franchise that squandered its playoff run, can’t just run back the same team next season, so needs some retooling short of a major rebuilding. In other words, polls suggest there are choices to be made about the next version of his leadership to send into action.

Carney was gifted a pig (distressed party, cross-aisle and cross-border threats) and has been endeavouring to put more than lipstick on it for months now. New policies abound, as does an obvious recognition there is no other choice but subservience to U.S. President Donald Trump in the do-over on our trade deal as part of a gimme-gimme disruption of the global economy. (This week’s rescinding of the........

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