With his party's overwhelming election victory last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has every right to celebrate and savour his political triumph over his longtime rivals.
After years of having to fight and compromise with the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc, Harper can now govern virtually unopposed by anyone other than his own MPs. Thanks largely to the meltdown of the Liberals and the separatist Bloc, Harper's decades-long dream of leading the conservatives back to power has been realized at last.
“Canadians can now turn the page on uncertainty and elections of the past seven years,” Harper said in his election victory speech. “We must be the government of all Canadians.”
NDP leader Jack Layton can also celebrate his party's dramatic rise in Parliament – a showing that may actually signal the swan song of the once mighty Liberal Party of Canada.
“Spring is here my friends, and a new chapter begins,” Layton said in his election night speech. “We will oppose the government when it's off track.”
While Layton may hold out high hopes that his party really will be able to keep the Harper government ‘on track', the fact is he has no real power to affect the Conservative agenda.
Unfortunately for the NDP, the bottom line is Canadians have given the Tories the keys to the kingdom and there's nothing any other party can do about it.
Not surprisingly Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has been quick to congratulate his fellow conservatives on their electoral triumph.
“Canada can now move forward with a stable government that can continue to build our economy, balance the federal budget, get tough on crime, and keep taxes low for working families,” said Stelmach.
Despite his kind words, one can't help but wonder whether the premier (and his replacement) will be so friendly and accommodating when the provincial and federal government face off over critical issues such as the oilsands' future and health-care funding.
Whether the prime minister's promise of a new “government of all Canadians” will end up being good news for the people of West Central Alberta remains to be seen. Yet after years of minority government infighting and bickering, there is perhaps some reason for hope.
When Prime Minister Harper celebrates his electoral triumph over the coming days and weeks, he should perhaps keep in mind Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's words following his party's electoral meltdown: “Democracy teaches some hard lessons and we have to learn them all.”
And one lesson Stephen Harper better not forget is what happened to the last Conservative majority government. You know, the one lead by Brian Mulroney.
