Steyn on Canada

As I said, Scary Stephen's no Ron or Maggie. But as a young man in the '80s he was spurred into politics by his clear understanding - unlike most so-called Canadian "conservatives" - that his country had missed out on Thatcher-Reagan economic liberalisation. Essentially, he's a political economist with a libertarian streak: he thinks that if you leave taxpayers with more of their money they're more likely to spend it in ways that do more social good than letting the government disburse it.

And here's where I think Harper could prove Howardesque. He shares two of the Australian Prime Minister's great qualities: he's very secure in his sense of himself, and he has a very shrewd sense of what's politically possible. If he plays those cards right - and I'd bet he will - he could be, as Howard has been, one of those unflamboyantly transformative leaders who leaves the political landscape significantly altered. -- Mark Steyn

And this from his election night blog (which I didn't read until today!) sums it up exactly:

In other words, I overestimated the appeal of the right, the left and the separatists and underestimated the appeal of a party of floundering discredited kleptocrat incompetents who fought one of the most staggeringly awful campaigns in modern political history. Truly, the resilience of the Liberal Party of Canada is amazing.