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I’m referring, you understand, to various exiled heads of unstable states and coup plotters on the lam. In some small sense then, to a list that includes Iran, Ghana and Lebanon, we can now add Canada.

And we can say that politicians normally campaign in the countries they campaign in. Of course, it’s fair to ask why.

But the answer is self-evident. Politicians don’t operate this way merely because they’ve always operated this way (although they have); nor because it’s easier to campaign in a place when you’re in that place (although it is); nor because voters distrust politicians who avoid being in close physical proximity to them (although they very well ought to). It’s simply that if one wants to show that he is committed to leading a country, showing up in it regularly may not be enough, but it helps.

Here, then, what is normal is also best. But while norms still matter, they don’t matter in the way they normally do. Normal is now a prop that bullies use to prove they can push the system around. And if they break rules they set themselves – as, say, an anti-immigrant president might by marrying an immigrant – they look that much stronger.

For a party that wants to be in power more than it wants to be good, looking strong is enough.

One norm, at least, must prevail over O’Leary. He hasn’t yet defied the law of physics that dictates a man cannot be in two places at once. Perhaps Canada will get lucky and he’ll eventually stay where he wants to be.

Shannon Gormley is an Ottawa Citizen global affairs columnist and freelance journalist.