STARTING a conservative revolution in Canada was never going to be easy. It is a socially liberal place, proud of its welfare state and ruled for 79 of the past 115 years by the centre-left Liberal party. The first time Stephen Harper led the Conservative Party in a general election, in 2004, it finished a distant second to the Liberals, who saw themselves as Canada’s “natural governing party”. Two years later, with the Liberals crippled by a kickback scandal, the Conservatives did well enough for Mr Harper to form a minority government. An evangelical Christian and economic libertarian, he vowed to turn a would-be “second-tier socialistic country” into one that “the Liberals wouldn’t even recognise”.
link: Canada's prime minister: The circumspect and circumscribed Conservative | The Economist
Always interesting to know how we are seen abroad. There are no particular surprises in this piece in the only English language news magazine worth the paper it's printed on. There is a repetition of the warning we know well.
Given a majority, Mr Harper might be bolder. “He’s been open in stating what his ambitions are. His agenda is to make Canada more conservative and to make the Conservatives the dominant party,” says Lawrence Martin, the author of a book on the prime minister. The question is whether a majority of Canadians want that—or whether they are perfectly happy with their circumscribed government.
link: Canada's prime minister: The circumspect and circumscribed Conservative | The Economist
