On 4 November, Democrats in the US had an incredible night of victories up and down the ticket, from sheriffs to judges to governors. I’m going to take a short hiatus from military theory and talk politics today, so if you don’t care about such things, see you soon and thanks for dropping by.

Before the last Canadian election, I went to a “meet the candidates” event here in Victoria. One of my oldest friends was in town and we met at the meeting. Over a beer, I shared my opinion that we (conservatives) were going to lose. Our national strategy was wrongheaded. He didn’t agree. I told him — and the candidate he supported — that unlike the US, Canada was done with fear mongering and vengeance politics. They disagreed and almost everyone in the pub with whom I spoke told me I was misreading the situation. I explained that I had STRONG anti Liberal Party feelings, but anger, fear, vengeance, bitterness, and subliminal racism was NOT a winning strategy, and it was un-Canadian in my opinion.

I won’t re-contest the election except to say the Conservative lead of 25 points evaporated. Once more, I tasted the bitter apple of electoral defeat.

What happened last week south of the border? If you dig into the details, the shocking flips up and down the ticket all hinged on the same issue: candidates who focused on a positive message, on wanting to improve the lives of their constituents instead of punishing this or that group, all won their races. Is this the harbinger of a seismic shift? I cannot say with certainty, but it is certainly an interesting data point.

Our new PM, whom I did not support but have said repeatedly that I believe he is doing a great job, (let’s face it; he a centre-moderate and almost a Red Tory) just released his budget and the Conservatives immediately started bashing it. In a parliamentary system, the Loyal Opposition is not expected to offer a full throated support of a new budget, but when there is so much at risk as there is today, the smart leader of that opposition would rise in the House and announce that he was deeply disappointed in the budget, could not support it, but for the sake of the country, would free his members to vote their conscience. We all know what actually happened and the man in question went further: he threatened his caucus. Brilliant.

In the days since the budget release the CPC has lost two members. One crossed the floor to caucus with the Liberals and the other, the more experienced and arguably better member, simply resigned. The government now only needs a single extra vote to pass the budget and if the CPC loses another member to the LPC, they will have a majority government without the costly need to call another election.

What could the Leader of the Opposition have learned (but which I doubt that he did)? Canadians want leaders who want to make their lives better, who want their lives to be more prosperous and healthier. They don’t really care whom you love, how you dress or what pronouns you chose. That is not us.

I believe I have mentioned this before but it’s worth repeating. We have listened too long to the American rhetoric that a leader’s ultimate priority is to keep the nation safe, or as the US sees this, armed to the teeth, closed off from the world and angry. Enough. A leader’s ultimate duty is to make the lives of his or her countrymen better. Politics is a social compact and the way it works is that we (the electorate) give the leader our support in exchange for the leader keeping our country on a path to betterment. We can certainly disagree on the definition of “betterment”, but we should at least agree that it does not include divisiveness, racism, misogyny or segregation by region, race, religious affiliation or opinion.

The longest continuous political experiment in human history, the experiment started by thirteen British colonies because their king forgot to treat them with dignity, stuttered last November. This November, they seem to have begun to wake from their fever dream and realize that electing people who openly lied, were proud of their ignorance, and promised retribution, was not who they were. We do not need to repeat that experiment here.

Let us watch and learn.