I feel like Mark’s done all he can. He went full steam ahead for a year, rustled up trade agreements, and now all we can do is wait.

It’s a weird place for a Prime Minister to be in. We don’t traditionally think of PMs as folks who have to get things moving for a next quarter, but we’ve never had Mark Carney in charge before.

So what happens if the sales figures come in next month, or next year, and they’re too low to sustain growth? There’s no winding up the country of Canada. There’s no selling it off to an asset management firm, or merging with a rival. There’s no declaring bankruptcy. What if the country of Canada, run as a business, is underwater?

Mark Carney knows the business analogy can only go so far. The stakeholders in the country of Canada aren’t just the members of cabinet, they’re not even just the taxpayers. Remember those who are too poor to have a tax obligation are stakeholders too. So what do we do when we have concerns about our stakes?

The better analogy is that Canada is an idea, an ideology, or fusion of ideologies across spectrums where all ideologies (or most) are allowed to exist, if not thrive. It’s a good idea, one I’m proud of.

Mark gets his majority soon, and he’s still the best person to sit at the boardroom table, to communicate with the stakeholders. I know he can pivot. He can connect to us emotionally. He can stop giving the same campaign speech he’s been giving for a year now (despite what the communications staffers tell you, you can overrepeat yourself). I have faith. I have faith in Mark, because I have faith in Canada.

We’ll make it. We’re lucky. We have arable land. Clean air, decent infrastructure. It’s so much more than so many parts of the world where starvation is the result of an energy crisis. If Mark can’t make this country work, I don’t know who can. So still, today, I have faith.