Canada’s 43rd federal election is over — and for many Canadians it was dismal. It was a campaign of “gotcha” moments fought in the mud and a symptom of the greater rot in Canadian politics: the continued growth of so-called “affective partisanship,” or the tribal hostility felt by partisans of one party against partisans of another.

There is prudence in learning from the well-intended critiques of our critics even if the lesson isn’t what they necessarily want to teach us.

Papal dilemma

The moot question that concerns many attendees at the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon appears to be Pope Francis’ expected shift in mandatory clerical celibacy, which would be virulently opposed by conservatives. 

It was a humbled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who indulged the media after his Liberal Party was returned grudgingly to Ottawa with a minority government.

With 47 of 48 seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan going to the Conservative Party in the Oct. 21 election, those Tory MPs make up almost 40 per cent of their party’s caucus. They would have a dominant voice in government had the Conservatives won the election.

I’m still basking in the glow of the splendid Mass of canonization Oct. 13, presided over by Pope Francis and attended by tens of thousands of bishops, priests and faithful from all over the world.

I spent the two Sundays before election day handing out small booklets entitled “For Heaven’s Sake, Vote!” to parishioners after Mass. The booklet is a federal election guide published by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto.

No more nukes

Re: Bishops demand action on nuclear treaty (Oct. 6):

Syrian Christians have been neglected, forgotten and cast aside like “the scum of the world,” charged the patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church.

I have been following an online course on St. Thomas Aquinas provided by the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans.