Canadian Election May Foreshadow U.S. Midterm Elections

"Your country, and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world." Conservative Leader Stephen Harper to a U.S. audience.

The upcoming election in Canada on January 25th might just be a predictor of what will happen in the U.S. The Liberal Prime Minister, Paul Martin, is locked in a close race with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper. Harper spent the summer on the rubber chicken and barbecue circuit, shaking hands and trying to soften his image as a hard line Conservative. Most Canadians eschew the hardline anti gay rights rhetoric and Harper has already promised not to use a technicality in the Canadian Charter of Rights to overturn legislation affirming the right for gays to marry. But there's been a little fly in the ointment in a speech Harper gave eight years ago to an American Think Tank in Montreal in which he praises American conservatives and slams Canada for being a "European welfare state." Oh oh...so much for the image makeover. His handlers are saying the the comments were tongue in cheek. Full text of the speech is here. It seems to me that Harper is trying the Bush Jr. route of "compassionate conservatism", but many Canadians have had a 5 year glimpse of what that's brought to the U.S. and they're not going for the bait.