We are now just days away from Canada’s next official election on September 20, and like so many other happenings over the course of this pandemic it seems like an undesirable and avoidable event that nobody wanted or asked for.

The difference between this election and lockdowns or vaccine appointments is that the election was going to happen eventually, regardless. Not only that, but our prime minister acknowledged that nobody wanted an election during a pandemic and that it would be irresponsible to trigger one unnecessarily. Yet he did it anyway.

Justin Trudeau was so immensely proud of his work during the COVID-19 pandemic and his government’s response that he couldn’t wait for his reward and instead decided to dissolve said government in order to see if it would return to him, bigger and better than ever. If you love them, let them go, it is said.

So, while an election would have happened at some point no matter what—other leaders repeatedly express their lack of confidence in Trudeau, or his government—this PM was so confident that he had the love of the people that he thought it best to call the election now and get it over with. This from a man who had to strap on a bulletproof vest right before a speech last election because that’s how high tensions were without COVID. The mind boggles, yet hubris knows no bounds.

This election comes at a time where divisions in Canada are at an all-time high, and tempers are flaring. Gone are Trudeau’s Sunny Ways, and he is more likely to paint a picture of doom and gloom under PC leader Erin O’Toole than to speak of any light at the end of the tunnel. O’Toole portrays himself as the rational and right-handed alternative to Trudeau, whereas Trudeau seems to be getting more emotional by the day and his opponents are quick to point out his opportunism and failed promises.

Fortunately we are not America, and there are other options. However, those options do more to simply temper the power of the eventual governing party than to actually pose a threat to the two main contenders (excluding Quebec, which has a more unique political atmosphere).

The NDP has momentum and its leader Jagmeet Singh shows undaunted optimism, but it is nowhere near its former strength in 2011 under Jack Layton. The Greens still have their base and talk of the moral high ground, yet their leader Annamie Paul recently faced a pointless, debilitating assault from within that weakened her and the Greens in the public spotlight. Meanwhile the People’s Party of Canada has quietly built itself up as a party that is against masks and public health mandates, and that’s good enough to earn the vote of a frightening proportion of the population.

On a personal note, this election marks the first time I voted strategically. Prior to my move last year I was lucky enough to reside in a diverse neighbourhood with an equally diverse base of political opinions, and most options seemed viable. Yet now I know the sting of the bile that rises when writing an X next to a representative for a party you don’t personally align with.

This election has been an unnecessary exercise and the pain suffered on voting day could quite easily have been postponed to next year or the year after, but for the arrogance of our leader. Whether he still hold that position a week from now remains to be seen.