51�Թ�

Within just the last week, this tendency only gained momentum: The Trump factor was clearly decisive in returning Canada’s Liberal Party to power, under new Prime Minister Mark Carney, in an election that a few months back it appeared certain to lose.

There can be no doubt that Trump’s threats or fantasies about annexing Canada as the 51st state fueled an unprecedented wave of Maple Leaf patriotism — not generally among the universe’s stronger forces — and rescued Carney and the Liberals from what seemed certain electoral doom.

Mr Carney's central argument remained consistent.

On Mark Carney's final day of a gruelling race to be elected PM of vast and sparsely populated Canada I was with him.

For someone who had got to see Carney as a cerebral technocrat, a crisis-managing central bank governor a decade ago, the transformation into public orator was quite something.