The deadline has come and gone. Nominations for the Con leadership race are now closed.
And one thing is immediately obvious, this country has never seen a lousier line-up.
In fact so bleak is the situation, that when I think of the two front runners, Peter MacKay and Erin O'Toole, I can't help but think of this...
For months Jason Kenney has been strutting around like a puffed up mini Mussolini, bellowing "Trudeau gimme that mine, or else!!!!"
And threatening that Alberta could separate if the Liberal government didn't approve the Teck Frontier project, a massive oil sands mine.
But today you could hear the air hissing out of him, after the project was abandoned, and once again he was made to look like a loser.
As you may know, I have always been deeply concerned about Andrew Scheer's mental stability.
His creepy smile, his religious extremism, his feverish obsession with Justin Trudeau, and his compulsive desire to strangle the truth, always made me wonder whether he was going off the deep end.
And sure enough, I truly believe he finally has.
And it all started on the night he was defeated and humiliated by the man he hates so much.
He waited as long as he could, too long in the opinion of many.
He was obviously hoping that peaceful negotiation could bring down the rail barricades, in the best Canadian tradition.
But at last Justin Trudeau's patience was exhausted.
And it was the day of decision.
In my last post, I looked at how Peter MacKay tweeted his support for far-right vigilantes who dismantled a blockade near Edmonton.
Only to hastily delete it.
But by then it was too late, it had gone viral.
The barricades are still up, the ugly Cons are still howling for native blood.
And a lot of people all over the country are impatient and angry.
But Justin Trudeau's decision to rely on the Canadian values of negotiation and compromise seems to be working.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says he's hoping the RCMP's offer to leave their outpost on Wet'suwet'en territory in northern B.C. will lead to the barricades coming down, as talks aimed at ending the rail blockades crippling the country's rail network continue.
And just in the nick of time, for some angry white Cons are trying to take the law into their own hands.
Thanks to this blockade I had to rent a car and drive to Montreal, instead of taking the train.
But Seb and I got to play our favourite songs all the way there and back, which we hadn't done for a long time. So we had a blast.
And for a while at least I didn't have to listen to the howls of the bestial Cons.
For they are out of control.
I've always known that Erin O'Toole wasn't the brightest bulb in the universe, but I've always thought of him as a relatively innocuous Con clown.
Unfortunately ever since he set out to win over his party's rabid base, he 's starting to sound like a far-right extremist.
And this is just the latest example.
He swam menacingly around the shark tank. He couldn't make up his mind. He knew the Cons were hoping he'd liven up their deadly boring leadership race.
He knew they were desperate.
It is hard to imagine a race more boring than this one... As in any arena, strong competition breeds strong competitors. A field of strong candidates fight more forcefully for their ideas. Their weaknesses get tested.
And through the fire of a leadership contest – the hotter the better - you harden them into steel.
Step forward John Baird.
But when the time came, he just wasn't ready.
As I'm sure you know, there have been protests all over the country, in solidarity with the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in northern B.C.
And while most of the protests have been noisy but peaceful.
Some have been ugly with people denied entrance to the places where they work.
The other day I wrote about how Erin O'Toole wants everybody to know that he's a True Blue Con.
Although I wasn't quite sure what exactly he was trying to say.
But now I know, and it couldn't be more ridiculous
Ezra Levant is the most grotesque bully I have ever encountered. A porcine right-wing extremist who peddles bigotry for profit.
And the money he makes attacking Justin Trudeau, is only matched by the money he makes attacking the former child soldier Omar Khadr.
So when he heard that Khadr would be part of a panel discussion on child soldiers at Dalhousie University, he set off for Halifax to confront the man he hates so much.
In my last post I looked at a recent poll, one that had Peter MacKay so far ahead of the other Con leadership candidates it might as well be a coronation.
But sadly for Dumbo, it's only a cardboard crown, or a silly beanie with a helicopter-style propeller.
It won't mean much to most decent Canadians who remember how faithfully he served the monstrous Harper regime.
I never really noticed Erin O'Toole until he replaced Julian Fantino at Veteran Affairs, talked up a storm, only to find himself running for his life.
And then of course there was the time, when he suggested he was a Top Gun, only to be shot down and revealed to be a helicopter navigator.
But you get the idea. Tool likes to talk tough, even if he can't deliver.
So this is no surprise.
It's hard to believe that John Baird could even be considered as a candidate for the Con leadership, after his disgraceful behaviour during the dark years of the Harper regime.
But the Cons are desperate. With less than a month to go before nominations close, hardly anyone has applied for the job. As one of my readers said the other day, "They got NOTHING!!!!"
So Jason Kenney is now urging his good buddy Baird to run.
It's a political story that ends in a graveyard, and I've been telling it for a long time.
The story of the Harper Party, and how the Cons became more American than Canadian.
So when Donald Trump came along they fell on their knees before him.
He looks like the same old Andrew Scheer, the Con in the same blue suit, with the same creepy smile.
But don't be fooled. He may have only five months to go as Con leader, but his feverish obsession to try to destroy Justin Trudeau has never been greater.
And he has never acted so disturbed and so dangerous.
As we all know, Peter MacKay has been trying to make us believe that he's more of a manly manly leader than Justin Trudeau.
By acting like an ape, weaponizing misogyny, again. And trying to label Trudeau as a sissy or a girly boy, for the "crime" of practicing yoga.
But sadly for MacKay, his ugly smear appears to be backfiring.
After the bellowing ape was revealed to be nothing more than a squawking chicken.
The last time the Cons held a leadership contest, just about everybody agreed that there were too many candidates, and it was real horror show..
But this time the Cons have another problem, an incredible contracting leadership race.
Where there are now so few candidates, some are worried it could end up looking like the coronation of Peter MacKay.
The polls suggest that Peter MacKay is the front runner in the Con leadership race.
And he is the only candidate so far to have paid the entrance fee.
Just one week after officially launching his leadership campaign, MacKay has submitted the full $300,000 fee required to officially enter the race to replace Andrew Scheer.
But if anyone thinks that MacKay is the one who can give the Cons a brighter future, they are doomed to be sadly disappointed.
For he seems to want to take the Cons back to the past.
The images are apocalyptic, and the torrent of hysterical news stories are enough to make anyone reach for a face mask, or a hazmat suit.
But so far at least the coronavirus cannot even be compared to the far deadlier influenza virus.
And in Canada, with only a few mild cases, this is the biggest threat.
