It'll take a while to sort out yesterday's Canadian election, but it looks like the Liberals will have a minority government which will only be able to govern if it works with the New Democratic Party (which is social democratic) and perhaps the Bloc Quebecois (also social democrats, but of the French Canadian nationalist variety).
It was a good night for the left in Canada. And its not just that the Liberals have to work with the NDP (and perhaps the Bloc). In the last few weeks of the campaign Paul Martin moved to the left on a host of issues in order to re-gain the popular vote: domestically, he promised more money for health care and child care; in foreign policy he distanced himself from Bush, especially on missle defense. Since Martin made these promises, the NDP can hold him accountable on them. It's interesting to note that Canada is the latest in a string of elections where the party that was more closely aligned with the US either lost or did worse than expected: Spain, South Korea, and India are the main examples. Of course domestic issues were the main point in these elections, but still US foreign policy also intruded. Around the world, Bush is the kiss of death for any politician. The fact that the Canadian Conservative Party was seen by many as being pro-Bush hurt them quite a bit, I think. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20040629/f1ac7784/attachment.htm>