Free Republic

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore has accused the oil industry of financially backing the Tories and their "ultra-conservative leader" to protect its stake in Alberta's lucrative oilsands. Canadians, Gore said, should vigilantly keep watch over prime minister-designate Stephen Harper because he has a pro-oil agenda and wants to pull out of the Kyoto accord -- an international agreement to combat climate change. "The election in Canada was partly about the tar sands projects in Alberta," Gore said Wednesday while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

The recent change of government in Canada reminded me of my family’s long ties to Canada. My great uncle served in World War I with the 42nd Rainbow Division’s artillery under a young Douglas MacArthur and served alongside soldiers from Canada, while my mother’s brother was a member of the New York State Police and its elite BCI unit and worked a number of cases with the RCMP. But it was my father who had the most intense relationship with the men from the Great White North.

A black cloud was lifted off Canadian-American relations yesterday: Frank McKenna, anti-American Canadian ambassador to the United States announced his resignation. McKenna, in the diplomatic post for less than a year, was a harsh critic of the U.S. ever since his arrival in Washington. One month into the job, he fired off a letter to Newt Gingrich for his reference on Hannity & Colmes regarding terrorists crossing over the border from Canada into the U.S. Only last October, McKenna stunned a Toronto audience when he called the U.S. government "dysfunctional".

"Former US vice-president AL gore urged Canadians to be vigilant over their new leader Stephen Harper in light of the newly elected prime minister's pro oil agenda. "The election in Canada was partly about the tar sands projects in Alberta....And the financial interests behind the tar sands projects poured a lot of money and support behind an ultra-conservative leader in order to win the election...and to protect their interests."... Gore said he wasn't surprised to hear about the absence of any tar sands talk during the last campaign,or even the oil lobby was pushing Harper's cause in influential financial circles,and...

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore has accused the oil industry of financially backing the Tories and their "ultra-conservative leader" to protect its stake in Alberta's lucrative oilsands. Canadians, Gore said, should vigilantly keep watch over prime minister-designate Stephen Harper because he has a pro-oil agenda and wants to pull out of the Kyoto accord -- an international agreement to combat climate change. "The election in Canada was partly about the tar sands projects in Alberta," Gore said Wednesday while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. "And the financial interests behind the tar sands project poured a lot of money...

"Our national identity was not forged by government policy. It does not flow from any one program. ... Our Canada is rooted in our shared history, and in the values which have and will endure."

While the minority is smaller than he wished, and a far leap from the majority he hoped for, things look pretty rosy today for Stephen Harper and his Tories. The Opposition is in some disarray, and there is little to no threat that there'll be another election soon. All Harper has to do is govern judiciously, reasonably, fairly. He's not an acrimonious man, and realizes he is being judged. And he can call the tune. While the country can't afford another quick election, the political parties can afford it even less. They are all broke, and all but Tories will...

As U.S. Senate Democrats stand down, allowing the Alito confirmation process to proceed to a constitutional up or down vote in the full senate, liberals across this land were packing their snow shoes and checking out rentals up north. Just as they were about to book their plane tickets, our northern comrades gave their own liberal leaders the boot and conservatism swept across Canada like a mid-January blizzard. Now what

With Canada's Conservative Party poised to take power for the first time in 12 years, Jewish leaders anticipate that the new government will take a firmer stance against Israel-bashing at the United Nations and play a larger role in fostering Israeli-Palestinian peace. "There is an expectation that a Conservative government will take a somewhat more aggressive posture in encouraging the kind of reforms that would allow the UN to fulfill the objectives it was initially designed to address," said Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Canada-Israel Committee. That includes moves to "end the annual cycle of Israel-bashing at the UN." Under...

Canadians gave Conservative Stephen Harper a victory, but no mandate, in Monday's election. The voters gave his party 124 seats in Parliament, 31 short of a majority, meaning a coalition government with the inevitable compromises. The outcome seemed less voter enchantment with Harper and his agenda than weariness with the Liberal Party, grown stale and corruption-prone after 13 years in office. However, if not a sharp turn to the right for Canada, Harper's election does have it edging in that direction. He campaigned on cutting taxes, getting tough on crime, turning more power over to the provinces, replacing government-funded day...

Conservatives deal setback to Bloc By Gilbert Le Gras Reuters via Yahoo! Tue Jan 24, 12:37 PM ET A Conservative resurgence in Quebec pushed support for the separatist Bloc Quebecois below the key 50 percent mark in Monday's federal election, cutting the odds of a new vote on breaking up Canada. The Conservatives, unable to elect a single candidate in Quebec in 2004, won 10 of the province's 75 seats in Parliament and had some 25 percent of the vote in the province. The Bloc, which once boasted it could steal 50 percent of the Quebec vote, won 51...

Dear Michael, I read your advice to Canadian voters posted on your website on January 22, the day before our national election. For some reason, you seem to be the biggest Canada lover or hugger or whatever in the United States. Even though you had the good sense to put the disclaimer in your piece that you, as an American, shouldn’t be telling us what to do, please note that we don’t have the slightest objection to Americans offering us advice. In fact, some of the best ideas that we lift are from America; note our thriving business in generic...

January 25, 2006 The urban angle It’s when you no longer know where your milk comes from, let alone where you got your opinions, that you have become over-urbanized. I note, with Allan Gregg, that the Conservatives did not win a single seat in Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver -- our three largest cities. Let me enlarge on remarks I have made in many previous columns, applying the famous Red State/Blue State division in the U.S. to circumstances in Canada. I disagree with Mr Gregg that the inner urban constituencies should be assuaged. The future of Canada, as the U.S., is...

As revolutions go, if that's what the narrow defeat of Canada's ruling Liberal party by the Conservatives in Monday's national election can be called, it was a typically Canadian one. By awarding the Conservatives a minority government — the party won most of the seats in parliament but fewer than the opposition parties combined — voters were saying, "We want to give you a try but we don't really want to hurt the Liberals' feelings." Call it the "Excuse Me" Revolution. Still, although the Conservative margin of victory was not as big as pre-election polls had suggested, it was a...

As U.S. Senate Democrats stand down, allowing the Alito confirmation process to proceed to a constitutional up or down vote in the full Senate, liberals across this land were packing their snowshoes and checking out rentals up north. Just as they were about to book their plane tickets, our northern comrades gave their own liberal leaders the boot and conservatism swept across Canada like a mid-January blizzard. Now what? Does this mean that we are stuck with the likes of Babs and Baldwin forever? What the hell happened? What are we supposed to do with Michael Moore now? “Conservative Leader...

Voters in 3 major cities shut out Conservatives Updated Tue. Jan. 24 2006 5:46 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff With Stephen Harper prepared to become Canada's next prime minister, the political sun is assuredly rising in the West. "The West has wanted in; The West is in now," said the prime minister-designate in his victory speech after being awarded a slim minority Conservative government on Monday night. But Harper failed to win over any voters in the major urban centres of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, which has city officials concerned they will have no voice to address their concerns at...

Strained relations between the world's largest trading partners were expected to improve after the election of Conservative leader Stephen Harper as Canada's next prime minister. But while his ideology runs parallel to that of the Bush administration, Harper failed to win a majority and will be constrained by the need for an alliance, which could limit his ability to move Canada to the right. The 46-year-old economist, who arrived in Ottawa from his constituency in Calgary, Alberta, on Tuesday, briefly addressed supporters at the airport. He canceled a press conference and said he would hold one Thursday instead. "We had...

Conservatives the world over can take heart from the astonishing resurrection of the Right in Canada. In 1993, the Progressive Conservative Party, which had held an absolute majority, was almost obliterated. There followed more than 12 years of opposition, during which the Right regrouped, the key move being the fusion under Stephen Harper of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives in 2003 to form the Conservative Party. On Monday, it won enough seats to form a minority administration, ousting the Liberals, long seen as the natural party of government. Mr Harper succeeded by presenting a coherent platform of tax...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada took a tentative step to the right in Monday's federal election, ousting the Liberals after 12 years in power and voting in a fragile minority Conservative government, television networks said. Preliminary official figures at 11.30 p.m. (0430 GMT Tuesday) showed the Conservatives winning or ahead in 122 electoral districts compared to 105 for the Liberals of Prime Minister Paul Martin. The result was a personal triumph for Conservative leader Stephen Harper, a 46-year-old economist who forced through the creation of the party in December 2003 by uniting two squabbling right-wing movements. Support for the Liberals shrank...