In the days leading up to the B.C. election on Oct. 19, an astute friend in Vancouver made a point of asking everyone she met how they would vote, and why.

Almost to a person, she said, Conservatives were voting to get rid of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Yes, they thought their provincial vote would bring down a federal leader.

Trudeau wasn’t any part of that election, of course. B.C. doesn’t even have a provincial party with “Liberal” in the name, although it boasts the usual plethora of fringe parties.

(I’m taken by the officially titled “Party of Citizens Who Have Decided To Think For Ourselves & Be Our Own Politicians.”)

In Ottawa on Wednesday, the entire media corps wallowed in the drama of caucus discontent with the prime minister.

The main message from various MPs, during and after a caucus meeting, was that the Liberals are fully united behind Trudeau.

If they are solidly with Trudeau, they’re nuts. If not, they lie.

Maybe it’s both, further mixed with shrewd calculation.

The Liberals cannot, under any circumstance, be forced into an election. Nor can they submit to a chaotic leadership campaign that would lack a key ingredient, leadership. (Mark Carney, really?)

Their only hope is to survive deep into........

© Calgary Herald