TORONTO – It could have been a Media driven scheduled event for a major Sports tournament: In Soccer, the final brackets for the Champions League show down, in Basketball, March Madness. One day, two partisan organizations, two warm-up bouts, two personalities, two major TV networks, two “crowds” rooting for their champion. But this was the last stage in in an impending federal election. Liberals and Conservatives paraded their gladiators for one last public scrutiny before the main event. 

In case you missed it, there are already major casualties. The NDP has ceased to exist in the calculus, have dropped in public opinion to a negligible 15% (nationwide) and hemorrhaging so that its vital organs can be absorbed by Liberals. The Bloc Quebecois… well, its message is obscured by the chest- thumping, growing, awareness that what makes “us” distinct is our “not [being] American”.

Other “vital signs” were checked yesterday. For example, the television network, CTV, broadcasted the speech (live – it is not a play on words) of his presumed champion, Conservative leader Pierre Polievre, from London before a crowd reported at 3,000. Public broadcaster, CBC, marshalled its immense resources, later, in Ottawa where a reputed 1,000 Party faithful (including staff and family of MPs) collected to hear the results of the nation-wide vote for the new Leader.

The visuals suggested stark differences that may determine how the public will respond, going forward. In the first, a natural “colourful” delivery with verve. In the second, a more sombre combination of colours and delivery. Both must have been choices made for a purpose. In any case, Mark Carney emerged as the Leader of the Liberal Party with 85.9% of the approximately 150,000 Liberal Party “members who voted”, nation-wide.

No political organization can function without money. The sums raised confirm a similarly impressive detachment in ability to marshal resources on the part of contestants: 77% of the c. $4.57 million raised, since the campaign kick-off, was done so by the Carney team.

The figures were laid bare to demonstrate that a skeptical public has returned to the Liberal fold with its bankbooks. The Conservatives have apparently amassed a veritable fortune during the down-days of the Trudeau era.

Those days would appear to be over, hence the presence of a venerable former Leader/PM, Jean Chretien, to signal that “all is forgiven, and ours remains the Party of all things good and doable”.

Now, it will be up to the public to determine if the new quarterback is a real number ten.