Pierre Poilievre must wake up in the morning and wonder what it will take to get Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to quit trying to help him.

The Conservative leader has his hands full right now. He’s got an election to win at a time his once-substantial lead has dwindled away into a neck-and-neck race. A Liberal party that seemed to be hurtling towards self-destruction just months ago has pulled a Lazarus-like resurrection. Given the concentration of Conservative support across the West, the tightness of the race means Poilievre needs to make significant inroads among voters located largely to the east of Manitoba, where the overwhelming issue in the election launched on Sunday is the need to deal with Canada’s suddenly hostile neighbours in the United States.