W hatever his flaws as a politician turn out to be, Mark Carney does at least possess self-awareness. “You’re supposed to campaign in poetry and govern in prose,” he said in his final campaign speech on April 27th, on the eve of the election. “As the assembled media will tell you, I campaigned in prose. So I’m going to govern in econometrics.”

The incumbent Liberal Party secured a fourth term in power after a major turnaround in fortunes, aided by President Donald Trump’s trade war and threats to annex Canadian territory.