Us Canadians possess a rather strange national quirk, at least as pertains to federal electoral politics — a fierce sense of national pride, usually stoked by some slight, real or perceived, on the part of the much larger, richer cousin to the south; to which we go on to manifest in a fit of national self-immolation.

In case you are among the roughly 340 million Americans who missed it, Canada held a federal election last Monday which was won, for the third straight time, by the Liberal Party, led by the freshly minted Mark Carney, who probably still can’t quite believe his luck. A few short months ago the Liberal Party was headed for a rout, having been helmed for nearly a decade by the spectacularly clownish and incompetent Justin Trudeau. The Trudeau government presided over a period of economic stagnation remarkable in its severity, and which is only one of the things broken in that country by the Liberals. At the beginning of the year the Conservative Party, led by the highly capable Pierre Poilievre, was ahead in the polls by double digits, at times by 25%. It seemed Canada’s “lost decade” was coming to a close and a brighter future beckoned.

Two things happened: first, Trudeau resigned and was replaced by Carney. This was not especially consequential; the scandals, disastrous economy, inter-party splits and general mismanagement of the country by the Liberals were too much to be simply swept under the rug by a change of leadership.

Then Donald Trump opened his mouth.

The sweeping tariffs announced by the U.S. president sent a shock wave through a Canadian economy already struggling under the weight of deleterious domestic policy. The United States is Canada’s largest trading partner by far — a little more than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. This was taken, not unfairly, as being akin to an act of economic war, and for no discernable reason. To add insult to injury, Trump’s inane talk of annexing Canada as the “51st state” — something that everyone knows will never happen — vexed the average Canadian to no end. More importantly, it absolutely sabotaged Poilievre and his Tory Party’s chances to reclaim the mantle of His Majesty’s government in Canada and set about starting the process of fixing the place up.

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The Liberals were re-elected purely and entirely out of a paroxysm of rage at Donald Trump. Carney, a former central banker who served as governor of both the Banks of Canada and England, has no practical political experience, little personal charisma, no discernable policy and a hideous economic track record, had anyone bothered to check. No one did, of course, because all that mattered in this election was he was against Trump — really really against Trump, and used a hockey reference to show just how against Trump he was.

It is supremely lucky for him the election had nothing whatsoever to do with policy. His record as head of the Bank of England was disastrous — he oversaw a money-printing binge that produced nothing for the UK but some of the worst inflation in the G8, and the virtual collapse of London as a global financial hub; a pair of striking accomplishments given the Bank of England’s sole purpose is to control inflation and promote stability. During his tenure he allowed public pension funds to be too-heavily invested in high-risk assets, which set of a financial crisis that doomed Liz Truss’ government before it had a chance to begin; and he politicized the central bank in a manner unheard of previously, including committing it to net-zero (his personal obsession) and other climate policies it had no business being engaged in. Thanks to the bellicose interference of Trump, he never once had to defend any of this to the Canadian people.

The tragic figure in this is Poilievre, who by all accounts would have been a stellar prime minister. The ultimate irony is a Conservative government under Poilievre’s tutelage would have put Canada in a much stronger position vis a vis the U.S. First, the country would, in time, have been on much more solid financial footing; defense spending would have increased and the Canadian military gradually built back sufficiently to meet NATO obligations and exert arctic sovereignty, something that will not happen under Carney; and steps would have been taken to address the few legitimate concerns raised by Trump, including crime, immigration, drug trafficking and so forth.

None of that will happen now. Any hopes one may have had that reality would force Carney to pivot at least somewhat to the right shatter on contact with the recognition that the Liberals again have a minority government; meaning he will more often than not have to rely on votes from the even farther left NDP.

On election night, Carney shouted “Trump will never break us” to raucous cheers. He was right. Trump won’t have to. Carney’s Liberals have that task well in hand themselves, thank you very much.

Kelly Sloan is a political and public affairs consultant and a recovering journalist based in Denver.