The rather stunning results of the Canadian elections may be instructive for what is coming in the USA. Prime Minister Harper and his Conservative party won a major victory, gaining enough seats in parliament to form a government by themselves. This is a feat that has eluded the Conservatives for quite some time. The party ran on a platform of lower business taxes and other measures to promote growth in the private sector, particularly the energy industry. The normal opposition party, the Liberals, actually came in a distant third as voters rejected them pretty much across the country. The new opposition party is the New Democrats. The NDP message was one of higher corporate taxes, reduction of energy use through various controls on greenhouse gases, and a batch of other programs that sound remarkably like they were written by the Democrats in the USA.
Obviously, the victory by the Conservatives in Canada does not mean that there will be a similar victory in the next US election. It does mean, however, that the electorate in Canda has moved to the right like the US electorate did last November. In many respects Canada is very different from the USA. Nevertheless, of all the countries in the world, Canada is the one that most closely resembles the USA. Its election may be our future.
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