The problem, you see, is that nothing can sour a Canadian political candidate's chances like a kind word from the general direction of George Bush. Proof: Just trying to be helpful, the Washington Times ran a Dec. 2 editorial heralding the coming of Stephen Harper, "the most pro-American leader in the Western world ... If elected, Mr. Harper will quickly become Mr. Bush's new best friend internationally and the poster boy for his ideal foreign leader."
It's the kind of endorsement you pray for in Canada -- if you're the opponent. Soon enough the television screens were full of Liberal Party ads quoting the Washington Times' prediction that a Harper victory would "put a smile on President Bush's face." The ad voice-over follows with: "Well, at least someone will be happy, eh?"
Devastating as such ads were, and even with the turtleneck, Harper won. Why, then? I'm guessing you're not wanting too nuanced a treatise on Canada's parliamentary democracy, so let's just boil it down to several facts:
1) The Liberal Party was mired in a tawdry corruption scandal. It involved the laundering and skimming of taxpayers' money through various fraudulent initiatives supposedly meant to make French-speaking Quebec feel fonder of English-speaking Canada (as if that is likely to happen any time soon).
2) The American motto may be "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," but up here it's "Peace, order and good government. " Catch those last two words. They're the kicker for a reason. Canadians decided to punish a government for not being good. And they did. Which left the door open for the Conservatives to win enough votes to form a minority government.
3) The vote was split among four parties, with the Conservatives getting only 36 percent of the total vote. The other three parties are well to the left of the Conservatives, and the numbers of seats broke down like this: Conservatives: 124. Liberals: 102. Bloc Quebecois: 51. New Democratic Party: 29. Independent: 1.
Another way to look at it would be:
Conservatives who ran as if they weren't very conservative: 124.
Everyone else who said they sure were a hell of a lot less conservative than the Conservatives: 183.
See why Canadians aren't yet jamming the phone lines to find out how to move to Vermont or Marin County, Calif.?
Some left-leaning Canadians even prefer to take a reassuring lesson from Monday's vote. After all, the Liberals had been in power for 12 years, were mired in muck, ran by all accounts one of the worst campaigns ever and still the Conservatives couldn't muster a majority government, which is what it takes to really call the shots and stay in power for more than a year or two.
And yet. Just two years ago, the perhaps not yet fully "evolved" Stephen Harper made certain Rove-esque statements to a group of influential Canadian right-wingers. In that 2003 address he laid out his long-term strategy for transforming Canadian politics along American, neoconservative lines. Key to building a new, broader base: the hot-button "family values" that Reagan and his successors have pushed so effectively.
"The real agenda and the defining issues have shifted from economic issues to social values," said Harper. "Many traditional Liberal voters, especially those from key ethnic and immigrant communities, will be attracted to a party with strong traditional views of values and family. This is similar to the phenomenon of the 'Reagan Democrats' in the United States, who were so important in the development of that conservative coalition."
In the speech, Harper told his followers to be patient, to be satisfied with "the incrementalist approach" to fighting the culture war he was proposing. Seen from that perspective, Canada's new prime minister has just somewhat stealthily moved his country a significant increment further down the neoconservative road.
The day after the election, people were buzzing about when Harper would go to Washington for his photo op, one of those manly, beaming handshakes with President Bush. The ones most eager to see it happen seemed to be the ones gunning to topple Harper's minority government the first chance possible.
About the writer
Former Californian David Beers is founding editor of the Tyee, an online daily magazine of news and views based in British Columbia.
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