In an alternate universe, Joe Biden won re-election for president, failing to shock the west out of its ‘moderate’ slumber. With the mushy middle still in control of the US and Trumpism apparently on the outs, with no warning to heed, Canadians in that universe went with the bombastic grifter Pierre Poilievre just a few months later.

In that universe, the one where ad hominem attacks on an aging but well-meaning president had not forced him out of the race at the last minute to be replaced by Kamala Harris, a comfort settled over the US that the threat was over. In spite of having allowed a convicted felon and impeached seditious traitor to run, the American electorate had shown themselves wiser than their electoral regulators.

For Canada, the defeat of Trump south of the border allowed our own right-wing troll to take power. The warning we needed was not there. The visceral reaction to Trump’s echo never happened. The same anger about the rising cost of living and the dwindling middle class that brought Trump to power the first time had settled over us as well, with Canadians rejecting the Liberal government and choosing Prime Minister Poilievre.

In that scenario, one in which a dishonest and malevolent leader had taken Canada’s reins on false promises of prosperity for a working class he despises, it would have been Canadians disgusted with our leadership, jealous of the quiet grandpa next door.

It would have been the organisers of the Ottawa ‘freedom convoy’ who would be in positions of power in Canada, representing us on the world stage. It would be Canadian ambassador to the United States Tamara Lich welcoming January 6th leaders to our Washington, DC embassy, embarrassing us in the corridors of American power, rather than yesterday’s embarrassment of Pete Hoekstra welcoming her to the American embassy for Independence Day.

It is easy for us as Canadians to believe that we are somehow better than the Americans because we elected internationally respected figure Mark Carney as our leader and they have a president whose declared grift is over $2 billion from his first year in office, owing mostly to his relationship with cryptocurrency.

It is easy for us to forget that, just four years ago, Pierre Poilievre was advocating in favour of Bitcoin and pushing to make Canada a major player in the cryptocurrency world. That a year and a half ago, in spite of this and his active leadership campaigning among the blaring horns of the Ottawa convoy that he was so high in the polls that the question was not whether he would win, but whether there would be a credible opposition left to counter him.

We know from this record and from his behaviour since he lost an election he was sure to win where his values truly lie. His refusal to vacate Stornoway, even symbolically, during his absence from elected office, then criticising the Carney plan to finally renovate our embarrassment of a Prime Minister’s residence. His rhetoric against the government’s plans to improve housing access while his own time as employment and social development minister saw the country lose 800,000 affordable housing units when his government refused to renew their agreements. His railing against that same cost of home ownership while building his own portfolio of revenue property, taking part in the housing supply crunch he pretends to care about.

His position on taxation and social programs is well known. Cut taxes for the rich. Cut services for the poor. Had he taken power, that is how he would be governing.

If we want to see what an entitled grifter pandering to the wealthy would look like, we need only look at Donald Trump’s United States. Fortunately for Canada, Trump got there first — and showed us in time for Canadians to get the message before our last election.

But the story does not end there. There is always another election around the corner. If the moderate centre continues to try to defer action on or ignore genuine progressive ideas, Canadian frustration suppressed by the embarrassing spectacle next door will bubble over once again.

We need to diversify our export markets away from the United States and neuter their efforts to take away our energy resources through sham separatist movements, yes. We need to do things we are not naturally comfortable with such as fully funding our armed forces and preparing them for asymmetric warfare to face the real, tangible threat from next door, something anathema to traditional left-wing progressives. These are happening, and they are important.

But we also need to improve genuine outcomes for the population, ensure minimum living and income standards for all, rein in obscene wealth and corporate greed, end externalisation, get money out of politics, establish genuine universal pharmacare, end the rise of two-tiered healthcare, solve homelessness, rebuild efficient, affordable, interconnected public transit infrastructure, address planned obsolescence in our technology and prepare for the seismic shock of unresolved waste and climate change.

If we do not tackle those with the same fervour, with a plan, commitment, and action, that alternate universe where the grifters take over Canada, too, will not be a curious bit of fiction. As Canadians, it will simply be a deferred state of affairs, ready to resume here once Trump has been defeated there.