This is the final 2025 federal election edition of Doorstep Postings, the political column written by Josh Lieblein for The CJN.We could have had a Liberal majority under Finance Daddy Mark Carney, who would be unconstrained in leading the country wherever he saw fit. That would have shown Donald Trump what’s what—and it would have made us the envy of the world besides. Dear Canadian Jews,There are moments in time, historical events that yell “Come home to 🇮🇱!”When someone like Carney is elected, the people of Canada have spoken and have made it very clear that they are no friend to Israel or to the Jews. You might think I’m being… pic.twitter.com/1jIcR64Bbg— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) April 29, 2025 We could have had a Conservative government that could have worked in tandem with the United States, or maybe we could have finally had our national nightmare/repressed fantasy of being annexed by them come. Then we could have pretended to be the #Resistance and come up with even more cringey public demonstrations of how good times make soft people. This is what you voted for, Canada. pic.twitter.com/cAPilUdIMH— Fake Mark Carney (@MarkCarney_Ego) April 29, 2025 We could have had a coalition of progressive parties who worked together to hold the Conservatives at bay. Instead of ensuring his total and utter drawn-out humiliation, Jagmeet Singh could have formed an agreement with the Liberals not to run candidates. There are countless counterfactuals, what-ifs for days, endless possible better timelines. The party’s not over folks. Elections Canada still counting special ballot and advance votes. A dozen ridings still in play. A Liberal majority still possible. And if they are shy only a few seats, watch for negotiations to have NDP members and @ElizabethMay cross the floor.…— Tasha Kheiriddin 🍁🇨🇦 (@TashaKheiriddin) April 29, 2025 Instead, let me run through the more obvious problems with the scenario we find ourselves in. First of all, with a Liberal minority under Carney, we’ll have to expose the man’s still iffy political skills to as much daylight as possible and pretend he’s still a generational talent. Think about Carney doing Question Period five days a week. (You remember Question Period, don’t you?) Negotiating with other parties. Facing the media and responding to questions with lists of points, or outright condescension. If Trump tweets can change the outcomes of your elections, then he already runs your country.— Just Loki (@LokiJulianus) April 29, 2025 This is fine if you are ruling unopposed, which was the main selling point for the Carney PM-ship. Now he has to wonder about piddling things like pipelines and Quebec’s place in the federation and Alberta separation and actually having to tolerate Doug Ford’s presence. Recall that this man barely made it through the circus that is a leader’s debate without cracking. He might just hulk out like Harrison Ford in Captain America: Brave New World in the middle of, let’s say, a gay pride parade if someone gets too up close and personal, or having to kiss some cod on the Newfoundland shore. Can Pierre Poilievre continue to live at Stornoway? Technically, it is available to the Leader of the Opposition *in the House of Commons.* But if CPC chooses an interim leader in the House, it seems unlikely he/she would ask Poilievre to move out. pic.twitter.com/lom6NDbGGc— Glen E. McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) April 29, 2025 Still, he’s somehow better off than Pierre Poilievre. This guy managed to win seats in every region of the country, increase his party’s vote share, lose his seat because of a public servant uprising and blow a commanding lead at the same time. Doing all that at once is almost impressive when you think about it. Nobody can even agree on why. Trump? Rigid messaging? Being personally icky? Red Tories gone rogue? The most useless NDP since Confederation? All of the above? My name is Tim and I am Nova Scotian 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/n3TAws0fIa— Tim Houston (@TimHoustonNS) April 23, 2025 And what does he do about it? Does he take the L and quit? Wait potentially months for Carney to call a byelection, which would be the sporting thing for Carney to do? What if he loses again? And in the meantime, how does he deal with the bane of every Conservative leader who comes up short- endless leadership speculation? Is Doug Ford waiting in the wings? How about Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston? Or is it Kory Teneycke with the lead pipe in the drawing room? Do any of these men realize that voters don’t want a Life Brand version of Mark Carney when they have Mark Carney at home? Jamil Jivani crashes out on Doug Ford and “his goons” in the clip of the night. #cdnpoli #onpoli pic.twitter.com/u7yRZXhE0W— Dave Beninger (@DaveBeninger) April 29, 2025 And what should we in the Jewish community make of this mishmash of results? If the conservatives had won decisively, we could go back to appreciating their stance on Israel while trying to overlook the other unfriendly-to-Jews elements in the party that are always active. If the Liberals had run the table, we could have done one of our famous mea culpas, perhaps by backing Carney’s chief of staff Marco Mendocino if he chooses to run next year against Olivia Chow for Mayor of Toronto. I'm calling it. Time of death: 22:19.RIP, Canada. July 1, 1867 to April 28, 2025 pic.twitter.com/rsAobO4FGq— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) April 29, 2025 We axed Ya’ara Saks but balanced that out by electing Trudeau holdover and Ottawa elite art dealer Evan Solomon. We lost Marty Morantz in Winnipeg—yet we gained Tamara Kronis in B.C. The lowlights of the anti-Israel NDP caucus were swept out, but the problematic elements of the Liberals remain. Who takes over the NDP—someone who doesn’t make any concessions to the safety of Jewish Canadians? And what about Yves Francois-Blanchet’s promise to protect the Jewish community from attacks even as Bill 94 takes aim? Goodbye antisemites Joel Harden, Matthew Green, Niki Ashton, etc etc— Zehavi (@zehavi_) April 29, 2025 There are no answers to any of these questions, and none may ever be forthcoming. Instead of actually arriving at a solution, instead of ever actually settling anything, the show that never ends keeps on going. The dog never catches the car, the coulda-woulda-shouldas are as prominent as ever. And so I close yet another election cycle with yet another pointless column that ends with throwing up my arms with the words, “The only thing certain is uncertainty!”—annoyed as ever with yet another annoying non-result.