This month prime ministerial hopeful Mark Carney appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where for a few minutes it looked like the spirit of the Liberal party might rise from the dead.

After all, this was a man we were told was boring and irrelevant (a Trudeau facsimile in sensible socks, according to Pierre Poilievre). And yet there he was, up way past his bedtime, making cheeky jokes and landing them on late night TV.