As 2024 draws to a close, calls for the resignation of prime minister and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau come from all compass points, both within and without the party itself.  Yet, as the clock winds down on this year and towards the next, Trudeau hangs on, head barely above water, dog-paddling furiously in search of a friendly shore to land upon.

Calls for him to step down from outside the party are nothing new, and neither are calls from his own party, although this is more of a snowball gathering momentum on its roll down the hill.  But for the Liberals themselves, there’s an element of inevitability that many of them seem not to sense, perhaps out of a willful need to ignore the obvious, maybe because they’re blinded by other things that aren’t there.  Or, perhaps better put, they’re adrift in the desert and, in desperation, they spy what they think is an oasis in the distance, some shimmering mirage  of hope that, cruelly, isn’t really there.

When it comes to the Liberals generally, there is no oasis, and really there’s not even a mirage.  What does exist in the near distance is a sandstorm that will totally engulf them and erase them from the landscape, buried under the weight of their many problems.

I wanted to introduce you to your next Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition after the next federal election.

His name is Yves-François Blanchet, and he’s the leader of the Bloc Québécois, the party that wants to see Quebec separate from Canada and form a sovereign state of its own.

In his role as opposition leader, Mr. Blanchet has no intention of speaking English, though he can, as it would offend his tender French nationalist sensibilities.  Yves-François is a bit of a dick that way.

How do you get this little pop-in-jay as leader of The Opposition?

Simple.

On election night, tune in and watch the Conservatives win maybe 230 seats in the House of Commons, making Pierre Poilievre the prime minister of Canada in a major electoral sweep.  The incumbent Liberals will be absolutely trashed, winning maybe 35-40 seats.  The NDP will be trashed right along with the Liberals, winning maybe 20 seats.

But the Bloc Québecois will win 40+ seats in Québec, since they don’t run any candidates anywhere else in the country.  Those 40 seats will make them the second largest party in the Commons, and hence the Opposition.