Oh, Canada!

On Monday Canadians elected a Christian conservative as Prime Minister. Stephen Harper from Calgary, Alberta will lead a minority government. He will have to hold a coalition of moderates together in order to govern. Harper's religious and political commitments appear to be to the right of George Bush's. Numerous comments from the U.S. seem to indicate an expectation of stronger alliance between Canadian conservatives and those in the States. Certainly, one of Harper's campaign promises was the resolution of some of the trade and foreign policy disputes between the U.S. and Canada.

At the same time Canada's priorities are not always parallel to those of the U.S. The most significant geographic divide in Canada is not North versus South: It is East versus West. Canadians in the Western Provinces sometimes feel that their concerns are neglected by politicians in the more populous East. Westerners are hoping that their day has come with the election of Stephen Harper.

Canada's system of central government is very different from that of the States in one important respect: It will not be possible for Harper to govern by using a "divide and conquer" strategy. Because his political survival will depend on cooperation by competing interests, he will have to govern from the center. It may well be that conservatives have less reason to rejoice and liberals have less reason to fear than they think.