Is the Stephen Harper era over?

The following is an excerpt from an editorial this week in the Guardian of London:

It is the second-biggest country in the world, yet sometimes it seems almost invisible. Often ignored by its powerful neighbour, regarded with only distant affection by the two European countries from which its settlers came, and taken for granted by many nations who should be more grateful than they are for its help and mediation in the past, Canada plows a lonely furrow. Now, it is heading toward an election that will determine whether it will continue along the predictable rightward course set by Stephen Harper as prime minister over the past decade or whether it can recover some of the verve and originality that once marked its politics, not least under Pierre Trudeau, whose son Justin is one of the contenders.

Under Harper, Canada has entered an era of highly calibrated, money-driven negative campaigning at odds with the courtesy that is one of the most attractive of Canadian qualities.

Domestically Harper has tried to move Canada away from its social democratic tradition, reducing government spending and services, privatizing government agencies, cutting public health. He has gagged government scientists and civil servants, is bringing in new internal security laws, and made Canada a less open society. Internationally he has made the Canada that was a pillar of peacekeeping a distant memory. And his particularly passionate identification with Israel has lost Canada the “honest broker” status that it arguably enjoyed in the Middle East in the past.

The political contest in Canada this time is particularly difficult to predict since the three big parties each have about 30 per cent in popular support. Any of the three could end up in government, alone or in coalition. But we may be permitted to hope there is now a chance that something of the old Canada, committed to moderation and multiculturalism at home and to multilateralism and co-operation abroad, will re-emerge from the fray.