Canada's Conservatives oust Liberals

TORONTO — Canadians elected a new, conservative government Monday that is expected to edge the country to the right politically and build closer ties to the Bush administration, marking the end of more than a decade's reign by the Liberal Party.

The result represents a significant shift in Canada's political scene, showing that disenchantment with the Liberal Party's scandals and unfulfilled promises has grown so widespread that voters were willing to take a chance on the right-wing party leader, Stephen Harper, a man they had judged too extreme just two years ago.

But the Conservative Party victory was well shy of a landslide, and the failure to win a majority of the House of Commons will ensure that the country does not undergo dramatic change too quickly. Still, the new government is a symbolic change for Canadians, who traditionally have thought of their nation as a healthy rival to the American way.

Canada's election echoed the "red state/blue state" struggle to its south, with western provinces leaning toward the Conservative Party and eastern population centers generally favoring the Liberals, but with Conservatives making inroads. Canada's identity became a key issue in the election, with Liberals openly warning against a step toward U.S. values.

"A Harper victory will put a smile on George W. Bush's face," a Liberal ad aired late in the campaign said. "Well, at least someone will be happy, eh?"

Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin conceded to Harper after midnight, and stepped down as party leader with a strong but wistful speech about the successes of the Liberal Party's four successive terms.

"It is not easy this evening," he said. "There will be another chance, and there will be another time."

Harper's positions are closer to the Bush administration's than the Liberals' ever were. Harper said he would reconsider Canada's rejection of the U.S. missile shield, withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change to establish Canada's own environmental controls and try to work through a bitter trade dispute over lumber.

Although he campaigned from the center — much like President Bush did in his White House races — he suggested he would re-examine the legality of same-sex marriage, and is known to oppose abortion rights and to favor changing Canada's national health-care system.

Canadians may have been wary of Harper, but were not scared away. In his campaign, Harper emphasized his plans for tax cuts, funding for preschool child care and explicitly promised not to send troops to Iraq. That helped reassure wary Canadians that voting for the Conservatives would bring change, but not a radical restructuring of existing policies.

Martin failed to convince Canadians that his scandal-tainted party could become clean and innovative, and his campaign focused less on what he would do than on the threat he said was posed by Harper.

Similar scare tactics worked in the 2004 election, helping the Liberals pull off a last-minute upset. But Martin was newly in power then, and represented the possibility of change to many voters. As a former finance minister, he had turned the country's economy around and kept it strong as prime minister, but did not deliver on other pledges to streamline the health-care system or deliver funding for child day care.

The Conservatives will control only a minority of the House of Common's 308 seats, forcing them to cooperate with other parties to pass laws. The Bloc Quebecois won 50 seats, and the New Democratic Party won 31, more than doubling their seats. None of the three left-of-center parties are natural allies for the Conservatives, and Harper has said that he would seek alliances on an issue-by-issue basis.

The changeover in the government will take up to three weeks. The term is for five years, but the Conservatives may have trouble holding onto power with a minority government.

Harper learned from 2004 defeat

TORONTO — Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper is not a charismatic politician. Instead, he tends to be aloof and cerebral, with an explosive temper and a reluctance for the baby kissing and back slapping that are part of a typical campaign. But the former oil executive and economist has a sharp mind for policy and an instinct for strategy that helped win the wary support of Canadians in a carefully controlled campaign.

In the last election, just more than two years ago, the majority of voters hungry for an alternative to the long-ruling Liberal Party rejected his brand of change as too extreme.

But Harper learned a lesson from the Conservatives' defeat and this time downplayed some of the positions that alarmed progressive voters, hinting that he would not challenge abortion rights and same-sex marriage or radically change health care. At the same time, he offered tax cuts, mandatory prison sentences and other reforms that appealed to middle-class voters.

"I have evolved," Harper, 46, told reporters last week.

He also has ventured into new territory: humor.

On Sunday, for instance, he said that it is to Canadians' credit that they didn't fall for the Liberals' arguments during the campaign. "Canadians can disagree, but it takes a lot to get Canadians to intensely hate something or hate somebody. And it usually involves hockey."