The Harper effect

He's changing the game:  Along with making a job Paul Martin made look so hard seem so easy, Harper is changing the federal landscape. Suddenly, Ontario has less clout than its 106 seats suggest, Quebec is now the province that could deliver a majority rather than inflict perpetual minorities, and the loose coalition of ex-urbanite, rural and other small-c conservative voters is proving an effective electoral counterweight to big cities.

Analysts and sore losers point to everything from the first-past-the-post system to the wild disparities between the power of a single vote in, say, downtown Toronto and the hinterland. But that doesn't matter as much as the realization that Harper and those around him have found new ways to look at old political problems and are turning those insights to their advantage.