US Media Notice Harper

And it is not just Forbes that has noticed the Canadian Election and Harpers potential win. Here is the Editorial from the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado and a column by a Canadian correspondent in the San Jose Mercury.

An overlooked election to the north

January 18, 2006

Most Americans, it's a safe bet, probably don't know that Canada has a national election next Monday, with the increasingly probable outcome that our friends and neighbors will have a new prime minister.

And most Americans, it's an even safer bet, are probably unaware that the United States is a large and divisive issue in that campaign. The cruelest charge leveled against Conservative Stephen Harper, whom polls show the likely winner by 8 to 13 points, is that he is in the thrall of conservative American Republicans.

It is received wisdom in Canadian politics that President Bush would be happy to see Harper elected. This view probably overstates White House interest in internal Canadian politics. But the fact is that, with plenty of blame on both sides, relations between Ottawa and the Bush administration got off to a sour beginning - so the U.S. president would probably welcome a chance at a fresh start.

Canada election could improve bilateral relations
San Jose Mercury News, USA - 2 hours ago

Canadian voters will do what they'll do on Monday, but if Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, emerges as the prime minister-elect, an unwritten book will have opened for Ottawa and Washington.

Relations between the United States and Canada have deteriorated badly in recent years and every American engaged with Canada knows it.

It would be an ``opportunity to open a new chapter -- especially if the results are clear-cut,'' says Dwight Mason, retired deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. A majority government, he says, would be taken much more seriously in Washington.

Another American expert on Canada said a change of government in Ottawa would offer the hope that ``Canadian leaders would be talking to us'' rather than ``shouting across the border.''

These revealing words may explain why Canadian concerns -- and Canadian politicians -- are now mainly invisible in Washington.

This bilateral low point is a mixed bag for Stephen Harper. Washington knows what it doesn't like in Prime Minister Paul Martin and his Liberals. By default, Harper and his Conservatives offer new promise. In Canada, though, making out with the Bushies is a potential kiss of death.

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