BREAKING NEWS: Canada on the Verge of Imminent Collapse!

No, not really. But that’s the view of one Stephen Marche, who in The New Republic a couple of weeks ago wrote that Canada is about to become… the Balkans. Or Italy. Or something:

If Canada does collapse — and the parliamentary crisis is pointing us in that direction — the U.S. will end up with something like a Balkans to the North.

Canada has become ungovernable, entering a period of Italian-style instability.

Marche was perhaps overstating his case for effect, but, regardless, it is one of the worst and most outlandish analyses of Canadian politics ever written. I wrote a lengthy response to it in an article at The Guardian, which you can find here.