Canada’s politics shift to the right

opinions

May 4, 2011 - 12:00 AM

Canada’s Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and his party won an outright majority in Parliament Monday, giving Harper the right to govern without the need for constant compromise for the next four years.
The election is the third Harper has won, although this will be the first that included a parliamentary majority. Harper, therefore, will be prime minister for 11 years and change Canada’s political scene permanently.
The election reduced the Liberal Party that had held power in our northern neighbor for decades to a 35-vote minority and gave the New Democratic Party 106 seats in the 308-member body. It will be the first time in Canadian history that the leftist New Democrats have been the primary opposition.
Harper has kept himself in office since 2006 with moderate policies. Canada’s banks are conservative and carefully controlled so there was no housing bubble to burst there. Canada prospered, benefitting from high oil and gas prices, while the U.S. and European econ-omies collapsed.
As a consequence, the status quo in Canada is dandy fine and Canadian voters responded as voters everywhere are prone to do: They voted for more of the same.

AND THAT BRINGS up the question that conservatives in the U.S. will be burning to ask. Now that you have the power, Mr. Conservative, will you dismantle Canada’s government-run health care system and turn that huge chunk of the Canadian economy back to free enterprise?
Harper’s answer will be both interesting and informative. Canada now spends about 11 percent of its gross national product on health care and provides care to all of its population. The United States spends about 17.3 percent of its GNP and leaves 50 million Americans without health insurance.
This comparison will not be lost on Canadians.
Judging by its past performance, the Conservative Party there will be slow to make sharp policy turns as it feels its way into majority government for the first time since the 1930s.
Harper has reduced taxes and balanced the Canadian budget. He has protected the huge oil sands industry by re-sisting pressure to pass climate change legislation. He has increased spending on the military and extended Canadian participation in the war in Afghanistan.
These are his conservative merit badges. They won him a 10-vote majority and changed Canadian politics forever. He and his party may decide, along with the voters, that the status quo is just fine for now.

 

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

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