The Canadian election is turning into a comedy of cringe

Next week my compatriots will cast their votes in what has arguably been the worst Canadian election ever. By ‘worst’ I don’t mean allegations of voter fraud or political corruption or scenes of civil unrest but a collective release of hot prairie wind followed by a vague sinking sensation — the feeling of a prosperous nation of decent people settling into a new low of political disillusionment.

The campaign kicked off with a bang, as Time, a US magazine, humiliated the Canadian press by breaking the story of the year: yearbook images of our dreamboat PM — the thinking non-gender-binary person’s gluten–free crumpet — cavorting in blackface back when he was teacher at a private Vancouver high school. Since then the spiral has continued. Readers of this magazine may have missed the news what with all the buzz over… stuff, but allow me to enlighten you — Brits aren’t the only ones who know how to paralyse a country with a hurricane of political pointlessness.