Monday evening open thread—Canada decides!

Because I run this joint, I see that we have a small but loyal contingent of readers from the Great White North. This thread is for you.

Canadians are going to the polls today for their federal elections. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is asking for a second mandate from the voters.

Now, Trudeau has been in a bit of a pickle over the past few months, and the race is closer than it really should be. Why do I say this? Because his main opponent is far to the right, at least by Canadian standards. (Here, he'd be lauded as the savior of the GOP.)

Here are some of his positions:

• He's against Canada's carbon tax and will repeal it.
• He's anti-abortion, and though he promises not to reopen the debate, such promises have a way of magically evaporating.
• He refuses to say whether or not he supports same-sex marriage.
• He promises that a Scheer government will follow Donald Trump's suit and move its embassy to Jerusalem.
• He wants to turn the non-partisan Senate into a body which is filled with his supporters.
• He is against marijuana legalization.

And so forth.

I mean, he's not Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, who emulates Trump bald-facedly. A perusal of the Globe and Mail has a story about him wanting to institute a border force to prevent illegal guns from being smuggled into Canada from the US. Even rightists in Canada are generally to the left of American conservatives. But Scheer is part of the worldwide populist movement. A Scheer victory would mean that Canada withdraws from its leadership role in combating climate change, mucks up affairs in the Middle East, and will at best be cold towards minority groups. So, bad enough.

If you want to follow the results, you can follow here. 

Not only as citizens of the world's only empire should we concern ourselves with foreign matters, but it's also a welcome distraction from our own troubles.

And, as always:

Carry on, you Loonies.