Fourteen minutes before he was legally obligated to sit down and shut up Sunday at the stroke of 12, Prime Minister Mark Carney reached the campaign finish line in Central Saanich and headed back to Ottawa.

He’d just finished a cheerful midnight mass of sorts for hundreds of people at Sea Cider Farm and Ciderhouse. Then he took the bus to the airport and went home to find out if it was a requiem for his six-week-old prime ministership or the early baptism of his stint as a democratically elected leader.

Turns out it was the latter.

It was the most bizarre election in Canadian history. Most domestic concerns were overtaken by the sudden menace posed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s delusional fixation on annexing Canada.

It had the perverse effect of ending several years of dismaying national fractures and bringing the country together.

While the election was relatively close and a Liberal minority looked likely at press time, Canada hasn’t been this united in mood since its 100th birthday in 1967. Nothing brings a nation together like an external threat.

If Election 2025 was a ball........

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