Posted by
Bert Chapman on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 7:51:38 PM
It's easy to dismiss our northern neighbor Canada. To do so is unwise, because what happens in Canada affects the U.S. economy and national security just as events in the U.S. impact Canada which is our largest trading partner.
Canada is holding its federal election on October 14. After 13 years of Liberal Party misrule, Canadians elected a newly reconstituted Conservative Party to lead its government on January 23, 2006. Canada's Prime Minister since then has been Stephen Harper who is an intelligent and principled Conservative from the energy rich province of Alberta. The Canadian electorate gave Harper's Conservative a plurality but not a majority of House of Commons seats in that election and after a lengthy two and half year minority government, Harper recently dissolved Parliament and is seeking a majority for the Conservatives in next month's election.
Harper and the Conservatives have had some success in their governance. They have cut the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which is Canada's national sales tax from 7 to 5%. Significant ethics legislation has been enacted in the wake of scandals during the Liberal Governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin during their tenure in power from 1993-2006. Canada has been less damaged by the mortgage market downturn than the U.S. and is benefitting from increased oil and natural gas revenues. It's federal budget is in much better shape than the U.S. Harper has a much more mature and responsible attitude toward relations with the U.S. than some of Canada's leftist opposition parties do. Anti-Americanism has periodically been an ugly rhetorical whipping boy for some of these individuals.
Harper's government is beginning long overdue efforts to upgrade Canada's military after decades of budgetary neglect. His government wants to increase Canada's naval presence in the Arctic which will be increasingly important as Russia seeks to assert sovereignty over polar seabed natural resources that are far beyond Russian territorial boundaries. Harper's government has continued Canada's involvement in military action in Afghanistan begun by predecessor Liberal Governments. Canadian troops have performed admirably under trying conditions and have taken significant casualties. All Americans should appreciate the work and sacrifice of Canadian forces in Afghanistan!
Harper is helped by having four leftist political parties in opposition. The Liberals, who have regularly been Canada's governing party for many recent decades are lead by Stephane Dion who is from Quebec and is seeking to impose a carbon tax on Canadians which would have horrific economic questions. Dion is a weak leader and the Canadian Conservative Party has a website at
http://www.notaleader.ca/ which ably dissects Dion's manifold weaknesses.
Then there is the New Democratic Party (NDP) lead by Ontario's Jack Layton. The NDP is a Social Democratic Party which combines organized labor and some leftist agrarian populists and is the party that is one of the intellectuals godfathers of Canada's nationalized health care system. To add to further spice to this leftist goulash is the Bloc Quebecois lead by Gilles Duceppe. This is a Quebec separatist party who's goal is to make the province of Quebec an independent nation. Finally, there are the Greens lead by Elizabeth May.
The Conservatives have made gradual inroads against the Bloc Quebecois in Quebec and have a chance of picking up a significant number of rural seats. The Conservatives base is in Western Canada, particularly Alberta, where they hold all 28 Albertan seats in the House of Commons. (Alberta, by the way, is a wonderful place to vacation.) If the Conservatives can pick up enough seats in suburban areas near Toronto, they could get a majority.
While some Canadian Conservatives are more liberal than American conservatives, there are many who would fit comfortably in American conservative gatherings. U.S. conservatives should pay close attention to the Canadian election as a bellweather and, hopefully, inspiration to our cause. The Conservative Party website
www.conservative.ca/
features campaign advertisements and detailed information about our Canadian partners in political arms.