Editorial: A Minority Win, a Unified Tone, and a Chance to Stabilize Canada

 

 By J. André Faust (April 29, 2025)

🗳 Canada’s 2025 Election: Leadership, Entropy, and the Energy to Hold a Nation Together

Throughout this campaign, I focused on a comparative assessment: academic, experiential, and strategic, between Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre. My focus wasn’t partisan. It was based on a specific and pressing challenge: Donald Trump’s return to the world stage, and what that means for Canada.

Trump’s tariffs and confrontational trade policies didn’t create our economic issues, but they intensified them. Inflation, global supply shocks, labour market shifts. These already made Canada vulnerable. Trump’s return escalates those vulnerabilities into strategic threats. That's why, after months of analysis, I concluded that Carney was best equipped to lead. Not because he's perfect, but because he brings the economic literacy, international credibility, and measured temperament needed to manage this external pressure.

Ironically, the more objectively I evaluated the landscape, the more subjectively committed I became to that outcome. I became biased, not by ideology, but by logic.

I began to see Canada’s challenges through the lens of entropy. In physics, entropy is the drift of systems toward disorder unless energy is invested to maintain structure. In politics, it’s the loss of institutional trust, national cohesion, and civic dialogue. Trump’s policies, and the populist backlash they energize, add fuel to that drift.

Last night’s election offered a narrow reprieve. Carney’s minority win is fragile, not triumphant. But it may be enough to stabilize the system, at least for now.

And in one of the most unexpected turns, the tone shifted.

Poilievre, who fought hard and sharp throughout the campaign, delivered a concession speech that was humble, gracious, and statesmanlike. He acknowledged not only Carney’s victory but also the efforts of the NDP, Bloc, and Greens. That is something rarely seen in this era. He even offered cooperation on the Trump tariff issue, vowing to work constructively while holding the government accountable. At the time, he didn’t yet know he had lost his own seat. A dramatic end to a political chapter, yet he remained composed.

Carney, in turn, offered unity. He reminded Canadians that his mandate is for all of us, regardless of party. Even the Bloc’s leader emphasized national cooperation alongside Quebec's interests. And Jagmeet Singh, after a disappointing result, stepped down with grace.

For one night, entropy was held at bay.

A Personal Note

To all the fellow debaters, analysts, and commenters I’ve interacted with, especially those who supported the Conservative vision, I want to say thank you. Your passion matched my own. You sharpened my thinking, challenged my assumptions, and reminded me how differently each of us is wired.

I never took our differences personally. In fact, I grew to appreciate them.

It is through that clash of ideas, not avoidance or hostility, that a democracy stays alive. You were part of that, and I’m grateful for the exchange.

Let’s carry that spirit into the next chapter. The work isn’t over. But maybe, just maybe, the energy we invest now will keep the system from falling apart.

---

Structural entanglements, layered systems, humble forecasts.