Parts of Canada (e.g. Alberta) look a lot like red states in the US. And they've been pivotal in electing this current government.

Whether this represents a long term trend to the right in Canada, or just the machinations of a party in power, I don't know.

Why would Canada abandon their model? The Liberal Party (centrist) has collapsed due to scandal and thoroughly incompetent leadership (first Paul Martin and now Stéphane Dion) and not enough Canadians see the progressive left as embodied by the NDP as a legitimate party of government.

Canada's media is controlled by a few right-leaning moguls and even the Liberals helped this by hollowing out the CBC. Neither the CBC nor the right-leaning media have treated the NDP with the seriousness they deserve - they've governed several provinces effectively, have consistently increased their vote numbers over the last 10 years, and have a very competent parliamentary caucus. At the same time, this Canadian media has not really played up the true nature of Harper's Conservatives nor the widespread opposition to their policies. Watching Canadian media you think these Cons are just a bunch of nice guys trying to do right by Canada; their far-right agenda is carefully masked.

Added to that, the Liberals successfully scared left-leaning voters away from the NDP and toward them by saying they (Libs) were the only party that could block Harper's Conservatives (much like American Democrats have said). They weren't, of course, but the NDP can't trigger new elections alone, and so the Conservatives govern Canada with a minority government that will likely last quite a while.

There have been significant protests against the Conservative agenda, particularly the "deep integration" that would tie the US and Canada closer together, but these haven't been given the sort of coverage they deserve.

And the world will live as one

Thanks for this diary. Good info.
As an American expat, I have come to realize that there is a huge store of international good will built up by the  last 40 years of Canadian policy. Embarrassingly, I have saved my family's American asses at least once from angry popular recriminations by allowing people to think we were Canadian, instead of American. Sadly, I sense a change there- The growing recognition of Harper as a Bush sychophant is washing away the work of a half-century. Do Canadians realize this, do you think? And if so, one must ask why he's still there.
Though I've read some on the subject, and have heard all the rationalizations, I'm still a bit mystified as to how he got past security, let alone into the Prime Minister's office.  

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

I really don't understand the shift to conservatism going on in the rest of the developed countries.  We Yanks finally start to see at least some light at the end of the tunnel, and you damned Europeans and Canadians start electing lunatics.

I expect it from the Aussies, who might have the one leader more crazy, though less powerful, than ours.  But come on, guys.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

one word (I'm on the run again):  Anschluss.

Canadians need to wake up and take a good look at what life is like South of the Border:

A short article with haunting photos in the New York Times by Sara Corbett titled "Patients Without Borders" spoke heartbreaking volumes about the state of health care in the rural areas of the United  States of "A lot of uninsured". Yes, hundreds of thousand of people still live far outside urban centers -- and if you think health care is hard to obtain and the wait is long in major cities full of hospitals and clinics, try getting medical care in small towns. Managed care/competition - the Clintons answer to the health care crisis in the 90's - never made it to small-town America.

Most summers the residents of Wise County, Virginia are visited by volunteer doctors who work for an organization called Remote Area Medical (RAM). The organization also provides free medical services to poor countries with little to no health care infrastructure like Haiti and Guyana South America. Wise County has much in common with the aforementioned countries. When the fairgrounds opened at 5:30 am of the first day 800 people were standing in line. By midmorning 1,200 were waiting. Over 3 days 2,500 were seen but hundreds had to be turned away. An array of medical personnel went to work to provide basic health care to the poor and uninsured. And 78 dentists extracted more than 3,700 teeth. One patient had 12 teeth pulled out. A doctor quoted in Corbett's article said "If you spend a day here you see there's something wrong with health care in this country." Something is indeed wrong, criminal even. Here's another number: rationed care is responsible for nearly 100,000 deaths every year.

I want every presidential candidate both Republican and Democrat, every politician who voted against SCHIP, every person in power who doesn't believe that health care is a human right, or is against single-payer, to stand in line in the rain for hours to see a doctor. To receive health care only once a year in a fairground that must be bleached clean of horse manure before health care providers can work, to register in a barn, to be examined and treated in an animal stall - feet sinking into wet hay and mud - or in a musty old, threadbare tent that offers no privacy. To have 12 rotting teeth pulled out in one day! And then goddammit tell me the private, for-profit health care system works.

This is what the Washington Consensus programme of "reform" will do to Canadian health care if not stopped.  The Cons have already eroded the Canadian NHS  quite a bit, but that's nothing to what it could look like if they are not sent packing and soon.

Howard down, Harper and Dubya to go...

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...

Okay I'll bite.

First, Canadian politics are in significant flux right. While the Liberals are almost bankrupt and nobody likes the leader and the PQ are in freefall in polls. It's not as bad as it looks. For everything that the Conservative government have been doing, they haven't managed to gain any distance on the Liberals. They're essentially tied in the polls or within each others margin of error. BUT, the Liberals face a massive problem, their fund raising system was based on large donations from wealthy individuals and corporations while the Conservatives built an exceptional system of small donations from individuals (a la flip of the US situation). However, with the new restrictions on donations to political parties, the Liberals are scrambling to sustain their funding while the Conservatives are fat and rich right now.

Second, Canada has a dirty little secret on Kyoto/Climate change (no pun intended). Currently, Canadians say that the environment is the most important public policy initiative in Canada (beating health care, education,etc.). The only problem is that Canadians talk a good game but aren't even trying to come through. We use more energy the almost all other countries, produce more then our fair share amount of pollution, etc. However the debate has degenerated into a blame US/China because we Canadians are perfect Angels. The conservatives know this, so they'll really only start caring about the environment when the Canadian electorate cares about the environment.  

I'd argue that the Conservative government isn't a run away government, but more of a reflection of the electorate.

and has been so for over 20 years.

The previous Liberal government didn't deny climate change, but didn't do much about it either.  And it cut and slashed social programs much more so than the current conservatives.  Not since 1984 has there been a genuinely liberal government.

There is a growing, and ugly, hostility towards nonwhite peoples in Canada.  A new law has been passed requiring Muslims - only Muslims - to show their faces while voting.  Whites are still free to vote by mail.

Canada is often thought of as a kinder, gentler version of the United States, but it's not.  Its social programs are about par with the US (it does have public health care, but this is badly frayed and its public-pension system is much less generous than the US).  It may not be fighting in Iraq, but on Afghanistan its prime minister - headed for a majority in the next election - is as bellicose as any Bush.