There’s a giant game of chicken going on in Ottawa, involving five parties in a self-serving display of cynicism that has little if anything to do with the interests of the country.

It centres on Bill C-319, a private members bill put forward by the Bloc Québécois. The end of the New Democrats’ deal to prop up the minority Liberals in return for pricey concessions opened an opportunity for Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet, who used it to issue an ultimatum. Either Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agrees to enable approval of the Bloc bill, or Blanchet would do all he could to bring down the government.