Welcome to Carneymania, the biggest political rage since the (Pierre) Trudeaumania of my youth.

Only months ago the Liberal party was so far behind the Conservatives you couldn’t see them in the rear-view mirror.

Now Carney leads by several points in the polls in the most staggering turnaround in Canadian political memory. But he owes it all to one person who has been campaigning furiously for him.

That’s U.S. President Donald Trump, who has transformed this election from a debate about our nation’s revival into one about its survival.

If this continues, Trump should go down as the Father of Re-Confederation.

I’ve noticed recently that this whole election story has a truly classic western movie plot. How?

Here’s my election movie review:

First, like many westerns it stars the quiet, mysterious stranger, COOL-HAND CARNEY. He’s the gunslinger who shows up in town from afar, just when a neighbouring BULLY and his gang of vicious thugs start pushing townsfolk around.

The Bully is threatening to steal the town’s oil, water, even their land — and of course he’s in cahoots with an evil government.

Maybe he even runs the government, breaking the laws he is supposed to uphold.

So some desperate townsfolk turn to the mysterious stranger as their saviour, asking him to be town sheriff. Only our Canadian stranger is a........

© Montreal Gazette