There isn't the polarization here, Geo. My conservative friend James on another thread posted an accurate analysis of how Canadians are different from Americans when it comes to politics. I accept with equanimity the results of every election---win or lose---because I know the country wouldn't let anything bad happen to it. Liberals here always campaign on the left and government on the right anyway. Each party this election was fairly centrist, in some ways hard to tell apart.

What would pass for absurd in Canada is the notion that a vote for liberals means an anti-gun sentiment, as if a reverence or need for guns comes first in a country's priorities. Or anti-gun to mention US acceptance of mass murder, mass school executions, 438 children being hit by a bullet every month between 2004 and 2014, 13 children between one and three killed themselves with guns so far this year as the violence that defines the US trickles down to babies in diapers.

Ugly or truth or both? The unprecedented Canadian turn-out by conservatives and liberals in Canada had nothing to do with guns. They weren't an issue. Canadians wanted a change. As for your 2016, the Republican candidate promising the most change is Trump. Your populace is sick of its governance. If he's nominated, your voters may have to choose between a devil they don't really know and the deep blue sea. Seems a crapshoot to me.