Stephen Harper is no Bush, says "irked." I suppose so, because for one thing, Harper has brains. And he actually worked his way to where he is now. But as to his principles? Textbook American neo-con. He used to head the National Citizens' Coalition, an organisation that is about as far to the right as you can get in Canada. As David Beers makes clear, Harper got elected by distancing himself from this background, which could mean that he's just a very clever politician, or that he's actually capable of learning--or both. I repeat, unlike Bush, the man has brains.

Western Canadians may rejoice to be finally getting their innings, but the big divide in this election was more between urban and rural than between East and West. Not one Conservative was elected in any of the ridings of Canada's three biggest cities: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. This certainly suggests the conflict in values, the so-called culture war, that we find all over North America these days.

It also gives the lie to the suggestion that the Conservatives under Harper have made any significant breakthrough among new Canadians, the immigrants who are massively concentrated in the three big cities. In Montreal, where I live, the Conservatives didn't seem to have much luck recruiting candidates from the various cultural communities either. Or maybe they didn't try? Anyway, it was the whitest slate you ever saw in your life. For diversity the prize went to the Bloc Québécois, and this in spite of French Canadians' reputation for xenophobia.

There is something in the title of this otherwise thoughtful and interesting piece that seems to suggest Canada will soon have the USA by the short hairs, the way Saudi Arabia does. This is not going to happen, because Canada cannot strangle the US economy without inflicting even worse damage on their own, so deeply are the two intertwined. Other things being equal, America is obviously better off buying oil from a country that is their largest trading partner. Given the choice between depending on a neighbour, a friend, and a mature democracy with a diversified, advanced industrial economy, vis-à-vis a quasi-mediaeval Islamic monarchy half a world away--well, it's a no-brainer, isn't it?

But the real lack of brains, as Mr. Leonard rightly points out, is displayed in the Western world's continued dependence on oil, at whatever cost both in dollars and in environmental impact. The rate at which this vanishing resource is being wasted is as appalling as it is unstoppable. The oil reserves of Alberta, huge as they now seem, will be gone in less than a hundred years once production hits 5 million barrels a day. If the world continues on its present course, most of that oil will be simply burned.

We can't afford to do that with a vanishing resource. Even if we were to put a hydrogen cell under the hood of every passenger car and solar cells on the roof of every house, no one yet has the faintest idea how to get a jet aircraft off the ground with anything but petroleum-based fuel. Nor is there any comfort in the thought that ships and railroad locomotives could return to burning coal.

If Canada could afford to look only at her own interests, we Canadians would--and should!--be pursuing the same energy goals as Sweden, i.e. to reduce petroleum dependence to zero within a generation. With our enormous hydroelectric resources and equally huge potential for wind-generation (still virtually untappped) we could do it too. But we will keep churning out the oil from Alberta, from Newfoundland, and from wherever else we can find it because the US, whose investors are massively involved in our oil industry, will never allow it.

Sorry, folks. The last sentence of my earlier post (Why "Saudi" Canada?) should have concluded, "...will never allow us to quit."

This excellent article alludes to another fine piece on the subject, Lewis H. Lapham's "The Case for Impeachment," in the March edition of Harper's. However, Ms. Goldberg mistakenly calls Mr. Lapham "the former editor of Harper's." In fact, Lewis Lapham is still the editor-in-chief of that outstanding magazine.

James Louder

Montreal, QC