Ever since Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, there was a fear in Canada that we had picked the worst time ever to elect a Conservative government. Here was the United States, our closest neighbour and ally, riding this wave of hope and liberal sentiment. And here we were, stuck under the leadership of a neo-con from Calgary. The U.S. was heading in the direction that we had always wanted them to go, and we were going to be left behind. So naturally, as Obama’s visit to Canada approached, the media began to speculate over whether or not Harper and Obama would clash ideologically as Bush and Chretien did. The answer, which should have been obvious to all, was a resounding no.

You all saw the pictures. The smiling, the waving, they’re on a first name basis with each other. Their 10 minute private meeting went 30. There is an open dialogue on trade, climate change and Afghanistan. This week Stephen Harper and Barack Obama laid the foundations for a relationship that could rival Chretien-Clinton for respect and influence (although admittedly, I doubt they will approach the Mulroney-Reagan level). Many people are surprised that this liberal saviour and neo-con ideologue can get along so well. Those people do not understand the differences between the American and Canadian political spectrums.

In the United States, Barack Obama is a liberal. We hear that word all the time, usually in a derogatory sense from the conservative media. Leftist organizations in Canada, specifically the NDP, tried to ride Obama’s coattails and claimed they stood for the same things as the new President. When meeting Obama’s Canadian supporters, I would ask them: What do you love about Barack Obama? Is it his opposition to gay marriage? His refusal to adopt a 100% universal healthcare policy? The massive tax cut that was the centre of his campaign? I mean, if Harper tried to introduce tax cuts like Obama, the Toronto Star would slag him as being fiscally irresponsible. These are hardly the positions that a liberal (or what we consider a liberal, anyway) would take.

The truth of the matter is that Obama and the Democratic Party are only left-wing by U.S. standards. In Canada their membership would huddle around our political centre, with many of them being right-of-centre. If Obama was Canadian, my guess is that he would be a member of the Liberal Party, but would still share some positions in common with the Conservatives. One thing is for sure, he would not join the NDP, a party whose positions are considered so extreme in the U.S. that there is no American equivalent. The Republican Party is labeled merely conservative by U.S. standards, but in Canada it would be placed closer to the extreme right-wing of the political spectrum; think Reform Party but with more of a religious influence. Today’s Conservative Party is much more liberal than the Republicans, especially with Harper becoming more moderate in his quest for a majority government. So you see, there really is not that much of an ideological gap between Harper and Obama. Obviously they are not identical, but they are close enough that this really can work, and for the first time in nearly a decade we may find a receptive ear in Washington.

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Tags: barack obama, obama visit, stephen harper

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Federal Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.