Murray Dobbins: US Republican defeat bodes ill for Stephen Harper reactionaries

The excellent Murray Dobbin writes: "Americans--despite being shamelessly lied to by the Republicans and abandoned by their media -- came through in the end. They said enough is enough. Bless them.

"Canadians are apparently not going to give Stephen Harper six years before they say enough. A poll released by Environics for the CBC on the day after the U.S. election showed the Harper Conservatives and the Liberals virtually tied (33 per cent versus 32 per cent), with the NDP up to 19 per cent and the Greens, notwithstanding their shiny new leader, at five per cent -- barely more than their showing in the last election.

"Bush's humiliation will make things more difficult for Stephen Harper. For his core supporters, Harper's apparently 'good' relationship with Bush was a positive. It gave him the aura of a winner--a player on the world stage.

"But Bush and his party will now be totally preoccupied with how to salvage something in the 2008 election. To them, Canada and Mr. Harper will be even more irrelevant than they are now. Harper has received nothing from Bush for all his sycophantic pandering. If you can get less than nothing--and in Canada-U.S. relations you can-- then this is what Harper can expect.

"Harper will have to deal with a lame-duck president and one who might even have to compromise with the evil U.S. liberals to devise anything resembling a saving strategy. In other words, Harper's soulmate will be found straying from the path of the true believer and Harper will look like the anachronism he is. He can't deal with the Democrats because they believe (or say they do) in all the things Harper hates. For the months leading up to a possible spring election, the America Harper loves will be in change mode.