In Canada, genocide is on the ballot

If you doubted the old chestnut that politics can be a “fickle business,” the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, would like to have a word.

For several happy months, a succession of polls confirmed that Poilievre appeared poised to become the country’s next prime minister with a staggering plurality to boot.Impatient voters had, on the whole, soured on Canada’s spent prime minister, Justin Trudeau, worried about the ever-rising costs of living, from groceries to homes.

Poilievre and his shadow cabinet exploited the prevailing zeitgeist and seemed destined to wrest power from an exhausted Liberal Party that faced a blunt and bracing political reckoning.

Then, Donald Trump returned to the White House, threatening to turn Canada into the fractured union’s 51st state.

The political terrain and stakes shifted like a sudden, disorienting earthquake. Fretting Liberals capitalised on the opening by ditching Trudeau and electing a new leader, former banker Mark Carney as a “serious” antidote to Trump.With election day on the horizon, Liberal fortunes have made a stunning volte-face. Once trailing far behind like a wounded racehorse limping to the finish line, the party has edged slightly ahead.

But Carney and cocksure company should remember that other old chestnut that, beyond taxes, there are no guarantees in life or politics.

Some polls reveal a tightening contest, with one having Conservatives retaking the lead.

And while the subject dominating the short campaign has been the existential danger that a former continental confederate poses to Canada’s sovereignty, for many concerned Canadians, the state-sponsored genocide devouring Palestine and Palestinians with such ruthless and inhumane efficiency is the defining issue of these awful times.