I see no one started a thread about it yet but I'm curious what our local cannucks here think about their countries political change?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10988596/

I know the margin was close but how do you think this will change the political outlook of the country? Canada has been very outspoken about the war in Iraq, Kyoto, and continental anti-ballistic missile plan hmmmm things could get interesting soon.

I'm not Canadian, but I really doubt it signals a weather change in Canada's attitudes. The Conservatives did not win an outright majority, so they are still going to have to deal with the other parties to push through any legislation.

I think their voters just got fed up with the corruption in the Liberal party and punished them accordingly, but still agree with the Liberal policies by and large.

Of course I am just an ignorant Yank, so I could be totally wrong.

The Canadian "right wing" is largely still to the left of many US Democrats if you insist on that narrow ideological nomenclature. From my understanding of it the Canadian Conservative party is also substantially more conservative in the classical sense of the word in that they do not favor deficit spending or neoliberalism.

(for the readers at home, the US Republican party has not met the political definition of conservative at all since the late 1970s, and to paraphase Chomsky we only have one political party here, The Big Business Party, which is divided in half based on their corporate sponsors.)

The bigger question in my mind is whether or not the new parliament will follow the Washington party line or grow a backbone.

You may find this "letter to Harper" interesting then...

http://anglosphere.com/weblog/archives/000243.html

His legislative agenda probably needs to focus on government process -- transparency primarily, to decouple the Liberals' cash machine, and secondly disintermediation, to finish the end run around the CBC and the press oligopoly. The Bloc Quebecois and to some extent the New Democratic Party can get behind that agenda, even if as leftists they cannot support much of the Conservative substance.

But aside from that, the Prime Minister's office is a pretty good bully pulpit, and he would be smart to use it to start deconstructing the Trudeavean deconstruction of the old Canada. He should make sure the Canadian troops in Afghanistan are decorated in a visible and public ceremony, exactly what has been denied to them to date. He should make a show of honoring the Canadian WWII veterans conspicuously and repeatedly, and having a substantial ceremony on every one of the big Canadian military anniversaries: Vimy, Dieppe, D-Day, etc. He might bring back the Red Ensign in a historical context -- ordering it flown as a "veteran's memorial flag" on select days like D-Day, and for Canadian ships to fly the Blue Ensign on a suitable day as well, maybe November 11th. It would be very hard for people to criticize him for remembering the veterans more conspicuously. And perhaps he might even consider a surprise visit to the forces in Afghanistan. . . .

The Liberals and the media are waiting for him to become a "clone of America" -- but by taking an Anglospherist tack he can throw them off balance and turn the negative Canadian nationalism (in the form of anti-Americanism) into positive Canadian patriotism. America (and the Anglosphere) doesn't need a lackey of America on its northern border -- it needs a neighbor that has abandoned its touchy defensiveness and can take its proper place in the English-speaking community, of which it used to be a leading member.