It's getting bandied about that Stephen Harper and his merry band of united rightists in the Conservative Party of Canada may tonight win the right to form a government in Canada, replacing the Liberals after something like twelve years.

This is a good thing from my admittedly American perspective.

I have nothing against Canada. I like certain aspects of its culture (go Nova Scotia!) and I like certain aspects of its transportation network, namely the financial performance of the Canadian National Railway and the efforts of the Canadian Pacific Railway to do something other than merely count beans. The Canadians were even nice enough to let us borrow Mr. David L. Gunn, late of the Amtrak presidency. Heck, I even like the national sport up there, hockey. I just don't get to watch much of it down here.

Thus, you can imagine that I've not been happy at the recent and less recent string of separation between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada. I don't think I care very much for Pierre Trudeau's policies of knee-jerk anti-Americanism ("Ze Americans are for more oxygen and the universal provision of foodstuffs? We are not for zis!") and the like. After all, the world's largest unguarded border ought to mean something, and our nations ought to be right chummy.

I suppose the point is that the Canadian peoples have a chance to improve relations with the United States, something that I think would be a good thing in the near future. Why is that, you ask? Well, because I worry that circumstances in the Middle East (i.e. Iran) may require a well-organized and united front from the premier security alliance on the face of the earth, NATO. I sincerely hope that circumstances don't, but I hear people hoped President Lincoln could resolve the crisis with South Carolina, and that didn't work out too well either.

Back when I was in law school and during the run-up to the operations in Iraq, I had the opportunity to be at one of the weekend social gatherings that invariably involved a lot of alcohol. Yours truly had been engaged in a vicious battle between the unholy alliance of Coca-Cola and Jim Beam. As Emperor Hirohito put it, "the war situation has developed not necessarily to [my] advantage".

Somehow---at on or about 0200 hours, things are fuzzy---we got to the war situation. A very earnest young man angrily declared that the President was not consulting traditional allies and so forth, noting Canada's opposition to the war movement. This went on for a bit before I, rather unwisely, stabbed a finger in the general direction of the voice and bellowed out, "The reason we're ignoring them is because nobody cares what Canada thinks!" A bit of silence descended---Denis Leary's "chill" after knocking Muppets creator Jim Henson---and I pressed on: "Look, when Canada gets mad, what happens? Bad folk songs and whiny articles in the Canadian press? I'm scared. What happens when the United States gets mad? It's 'Codeword: TRINITY, Dayword: JERICHO' time and someone somewhere gets hurt with extreme prejudice. Canada's opinion will matter when they've got a military worthy of the name, and not some rump force supplied with aging helicopters, continual reductions, and succeeding solely on the skill and gallantry of its soldiers."

The rest of the evening consisted of me shambling away to fight against the surviving remnants of the mixing table, and I don't know where the discussion went from there. However, I've thought about that from time to time and realized In Beamo, veritas.

It has been pointed out by other writers that the Dominion once had the fourth-largest/capable military in the world at the end of World War II. Inasmuch as the others were (in some order) the United States, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the United Kingdom, that's pretty good. Heck, Canada had fixed-deck naval aviation until the 1960s or so, and that's respectable. Mr. Harper has campaigned on improving Canada's armed forces, and I like that.

A strong(er) military will mean that Canada gets a better seat at the table when talking to people abroad. That is a good thing for them, and it might put some teeth in that "moral superpower" business. I for one wouldn't mind seeing an aggressive humanitarian intervention against some of these African stooges whose last election campaign ended when Gracie Slick was belting out "Somebody to Love" for the first time.

Good luck and bonne chance, Canada. I hope you choose Mr. Harper to bring your nation to a renewed position of vigor.

NOTE: Due to national laws prohibiting the release of election-related news on Election Day until the polls close, I obviously can't comment up or down until some time after ten o'clock P.M. here in the East. I'll probably be tuned to Canada 360, XM 244. Maybe they'll be able to skirt this rule somehow and give me some scoop. Sorry that I haven't any better information than this.

NOTE THE SECOND: This didn't post when I meant for it to, which as at 1800 hours---user error to be sure---but it's still offered if only for faint historical value.

UPDATE: Per the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Mr. Harper and the Conservatives have won a minority government. The Conservatives have 125 seats in Parliament, which is more than anyone else but not an outright majority, thus the term "minority government". (Technically, perhaps this should be plurality, but I'm not well versed in such things.)

Coming in next are the Liberals with 102, the Bloc Quebecois with 29, and the New Democratic Party with 25. Hooray!

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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