They were done. Cooked. Spent. There was nowhere to go but down—into a brutal rebuild and an inevitable existential crisis.

Just days before Christmas and hours before delivering a devastating economic update, then finance minister Chrystia Freeland walked away, telling the embattled prime minister to shove it. In the days that followed, Justin Trudeau had never been more politically isolated. His reign was done. The man who had rescued the Liberals from oblivion in 2015 was now poised to leave them in a shambles.

This is not hyperbole. By late last year, the numbers were catastrophic. Léger had the Liberals at 20 percent nationally, trailing the Conservatives by twenty-three points. Ipsos and Abacus Data measured a twenty-five-point canyon between the two parties. Mainstreet Research placed the Liberals in the high teens. In the 338Canada projections, the party had even fallen behind the Bloc Québécois—not just in Quebec but from coast to coast.

Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party were about to cruise to power with one of the largest parliamentary majorities in Canadian history.

Then Trudeau resigned.

Then Donald Trump was sworn in, launching daily threats against Canada’s economy and sovereignty.