TORONTO – There comes a time, in any government, when the incumbent seems to meander just as the public awakens from its sleep. Any type of action aimed at re-invigorating the lifelessness everyone sees as descending upon, and enveloping, the people at the helm has the appearance of desperate futility.

The public “just senses that the time is up”.  From a personal perspective, having been on the receiving end of both, it is nothing personal. People in power and their acolytes in the Press/Media (who feel at ease only when painting the “opposing parties” as “extreme –“, “alt-“, “fascistic”, “communist”) continuously drive home that the point change will always be for the worse.

Maybe it will be.  There is no shortage of examples to underscore the truism that “the devil you know is better than the one you don’t”. But that is no confirmation of the principle of meritocracy, nor is it an expression of trust in the individuals we propose to support. These typically do their best to avoid scrutiny and critical analyses. Their objective is pre-determined by an intense desire to survive and to stick to operational messaging rather than justifying aspirational strategies.

Just watch as USA President Joe Biden stumbles “from pillar to post”.  Until his disastrous debate performance of two weeks ago, the electorate and the fifth estate (press and media) seemed willing to “cut him some slack”… yes, he may be suffering from the physical and medical weaknesses associated with an aging body, but he was not a candidate for some professional athletic squad. His acuity, corporate memory and network made him competitive on the world stage where ideas, processes and capacity to follow through were still well honed and operable. Then, suddenly, they were no more.

Political vultures now circle overhead. With each passing day, a new public “test”. A public meeting here, an interview, there, an official conference in the exercise of his duties… the result evokes the same rhetorical editorial responses: is it enough? Every time his “friends and allies” rush to the microphone to register support, others feel the need to explain why “the other guy is anathema”. Really? And a Biden in these conditions is the antidote?

Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau, at the helm since 2015, had evaded “reckoning” until his” St. Paul’s by-election moment”.  What should have been a “slam dunk” turned into a defeat with negative consequences reverberating everywhere. He refuses to meet his caucus to quell the anxiety and doubts among his MPs. Cabinet Ministers are resorting to “deep background” interviews with CBC types to ease him out. Others reference “the vast majority” of Ministers and Caucus who support him [still]. That’s political speak for not everyone does.

Trudeau’s ally in the House of Commons, Jagmeet Singh, publicly complains that Trudeau’s time may be up. Pollsters note that the public willing to support the Liberal-NDP parties forms a smaller group than those who support the Conservatives. More ominously, the traditional European voters are walking away… as they did in Toronto-St. Paul’s.