North America's other election

[CHIMO]

I know the last thing we need right now is another North American election to worry about. Just as the coverage of the US election reaches saturation point in Europe, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that Canada will go to the polls on October 14, in an attempt by Harper to increase the ruling conservative party's position to a majority government. And we should be worried.

The US election obviously matters to Europeans - the last eight years have shown us how much of a stake the rest of us have in who America chooses as its next leader on November 4. What we might forget, in the next two months of North American election campaigning, is how much the Canadian election matters too.

The lack of interest abroad in Canada's national politics is striking - probably partly a perennial stereotype of Canada as peaceful (read: boring) country, partly because the last eight years have required a heightened focus on the big bag of crazy that the institutional politics of Canada's southern neighbour has become. No one has benefited from this more than Harper: outside of Canada, there's barely been a mention of the fact that even calling this election is a violation of his earlier electoral promise to set fixed election dates, to stop politicians calling elections whenever they're in a favourable position in the polls (can you guess why Harper called the election now?).

If Obama wins the election less than a month after the Canadian election, the almost-unthinkable will happen: for the first time in generations, Canada will have a government that is more conservative than its southern neighbour. And perhaps that's what will restore America's reputation in Europe more than all the promises of hope and change: the day Canadian tourists put American flags on their backpacks so that you'll treat them nicely.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/10/canada.usforeignpolicy

Thanks to marmar for posting this in the Editorials.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x383258

[Lucy Goosey]

1. Is a Con majority really the likely outcome?

I have mostly heard that the likely outcome is a second Con minority.

[HEyHEY]

2. How do you think WE feel in BC - we're having the civic vote too!