Canadians go to the polls in a federal election next Monday. A record number turned out at the advance polls this holiday weekend. Nobody knows if that is good or bad, but it shows interest in the election.

The Prime Minister has been saying that Canada faces the biggest crisis of our lifetimes. I thought about that, and he’s not correct.

Or maybe he just hasn’t lived very long, so he doesn’t remember. It can’t be early onset Alzheimer’s, can it?

Donald Trump’s tariffs are a major annoyance and an economic hit to the nation. But they are not yet at crisis level. And they don’t compare to some of the earlier crises that I can remember quite clearly.

There was this thing called COVID-19 that threw the country out of work and killed thousands of people. Admittedly, that was five years ago and we are all trying to forget those days. I doubt the death toll from Trump’s tariffs will be anything near what we saw with COVID.

Then there was the high inflation of the early 1980s, when mortgage rates were at 21per cent annually. I think that might have been a little more consequential than whatever the US President has done so far. As a former banker, you would think the Liberal leader would remember that.

A different type of crisis was the kidnapping of a diplomat and the kidnapping/murder of a politicians in 1970 by Quebec separatists, the period we refer to as the October Crisis. At that time there was a question as to whether armed rebellion would break out in Quebec, possibly plunging the country into civil war. Martial law was declared, something unheard of in peacetime. Does what we are facing now compare to that?

In a similar vein was the 1995 Quebec independence referendum, where the country came within a couple of thousand votes of splitting apart. Tariffs? They are a big deal, but this isn’t a generational event. Let’s try and keep things on perspective.

I was interested to read polling results last week that said those voting Conservative were doing so out of hope, those voting Liberal were motivated by fear. Historically I would have thought it was the other way around.

The new Liberal leader wants us to forget the past ten years. He doesn’t want the election to be a referendum on a decade of Liberal policies. He wants Canadians to forget Justin Trudeau and to worry about Donald Trump. Most Canadians don’t like Trump, so you say your opponent is Trump-like in the hope it wins you some votes.

That was Justin Trudeau’s strategy. His problem was that it turned out Canadians disliked him more than they disliked Trump.

Three months ago Canadians were fed up with the Liberals. Now they are fed up with Donald Trump. In the next week they have to decide who they want to lead our country and deal with Trump. A fresh approach, or more of the same from the past decade, with a new name at the top.

In seven days we’ll find out who they have chosen. But don’t tell me we are facing the biggest crisis in our lifetimes.

Some people may buy that message of fear. I am not one of them.