Oh Canada, Where Art Thou?

The average American gives very, very little thought to our neighbor on our Northern border. Even folks who follow politics and foreign affairs pay little heed to the Canadians affairs. As Jonathan Kay writes in a piece posted last week on ForeignAffairs.com:

It is a credit to Canada that that few outsiders pay much attention to what goes on there.

Because its had "Canada" in the headline I'm assuming most Foreign Affairs readers Stateside skipped right over Kay's piece. Is so, they're missing out on a pretty compelling argument for why Canada's recent election is worthy of the attention American political junkies and the general public, alike.

For the former, there is the transformative power shift the election ushered, which could "set the stage for the emergence of a conventional two-party system," Kay writes, thus entirely reshaping Canada's political system. It's the sort of real life case study of electoral systems and political realignment that makes any good political scientist's heart go pitter-patter.

Then there are the practical implications for what Canada's newly empowered center-right government means for the United States:

Canada will align more closely with the United States on a broad range of foreign policies, including border protection, the war against terrorism, and support for Israel.

The Canadian government is also poised, Kay writes, to:

More aggressively develop it's oil and gas exports, and as the Middle East lurches from crisis to crisis, will be able to supply a greater percentage of the United States' energy needs.

They may not be aware of it, but Americans panicked by the rising cost of fueling their cars could soon have a lot of reasons to cheer this particular evolution in Canadian politics.