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A fresh start for U.S.-Canadian relations

Published January 25, 2006 at midnight

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Canadians gave Conservative Stephen Harper a victory, but no mandate, in Monday's election. The voters gave his party 124 seats in Parliament, 31 short of a majority, meaning a coalition government with the inevitable compromises.

The outcome seemed less voter enchantment with Harper and his agenda than weariness with the Liberal Party, grown stale and corruption-prone after 13 years in office.

However, if not a sharp turn to the right for Canada, Harper's election does have it edging in that direction. He campaigned on cutting taxes, getting tough on crime, turning more power over to the provinces, replacing government-funded day care with direct grants and allowing patients a limited right to opt for treatment outside the national health-care system.

From this side of the border, the most satisfying outcome of the election campaign is that U.S.-bashing by the Liberals didn't work. It helped defeat Harper in 2004, but this time tarring him as, heaven forfend, "pro-American" and an ideological soul mate of U.S social and political conservatives failed to suitably alarm the electorate.

Relations with Canada have deteriorated under President Bush. Here is an opportunity for a fresh start.

Harper is a famously boring politician. He jokes about it himself. But perhaps a little boredom is just the anodyne for the raw, irritated state of U.S.-Canada relations.