Battle River-Crowfoot riding in Eastern Alberta (calgaryherald.com).
Steve Timmer
by Steve Timmer
May 2, 2025, 4:00 PM

What did Battle River-Crowfoot do to deserve this?

Many of us are familiar with the results of the just-concluded national election in Canada and Donald Trump’s starring role in campaigning for the victorious Liberals. And we’re proud of and grateful for Canadians. Our neighbors were clearly leery of the 51st-state-Mafia-style-bustout that Trump was proposing.

A delicious cherry-on-the-banana-split in this Canadian election is that the Conservative leader lost his own Ottawa area riding that he has held for twenty years. The Trumpy Pierre Poilievre not only lost a national election, he was cashiered by his own constituents.

It reminds me of the poignant story of David Hann, the Republican leader of the Minnesota Senate in 2016, when the Republicans took the Senate — and regrettably, the presidency — but Leader Hann lost his riding, I mean, district. I likened him to Moses, who led his people to the promised land but was not permitted to enter. (Hann later became the chair of the Republican Party in Minnesota, but he lost that job recently, too.)

Well, they aren’t exactly the same, but they have a similar vibe.

But unlike Canada, as we’ll see in a moment, Hann couldn’t run in, say, Grand Rapids in a special election for an open seat while living in Eden Prairie, after he lost there. If Minnesota became a province of Canada, he could.

That’s because in Canada there is a thing called a “parachute riding” that permits a national party to, yes, parachute a candidate into a riding, residence be damned.

So, Pierre Poilievre is going to be shotgun-married to Battle River-Crowfoot in eastern Alberta and run in a by-election due to the untimely resignation of Canadian MP Damien Kurek. Kidding. It was very timely in that the Conservative Party made him do it. (“We’ll take care of your family, Damien. Now, just go ahead and pull the trigger.”)

The Conservatives picked a riding that Poilievre couldn’t lose. Sort of like sending David Hann to Grand Rapids. Pierre put a brave face on it:

“[I] will work to earn the trust of the good people of Battle River-Crowfoot.”

Yeah, like you’ve ever been there, Pierre. Jeepers, that’s funny.

Pierre is going to need a cowboy hat and some western-style shirts to ride in the Canada Day parade in Drumheller or Hanna. On a horse.

§ § §

And now this:

And the Europeans can’t resist piling on:

And here is a Star Tribune article about the Australian election.

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