Terror Arrests Gives Novice Leader Election Boost
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Courtesy Of: The Australian
Analysis
By David Nason
June 05, 2006

After borrowing heavily from John Howard's election campaign rulebook to win January's election, Canada's novice Conservative Party Government suddenly has some real-life terrorists to help it win the next one.

...Harper now stands an excellent chance of winning an outright majority in Canada's House of Commons when the next election is held, probably within 18 months.

...Crucially, the Tories failed to muster support in Canada's cities and Ontario, the largest province. In Toronto, Canada's biggest city, the Tories could not win a single seat, while across all of Ontario they took Just 40 of 106 seats up for grabs.

But now, with a terrorist cell said to have been plotting all manner of mayhem in these very areas, Harper has every opportunity to make security a vote-winner in an electorate that has found much about the war on terror objectionable.

The arrest helps Harper persuade Canadians that a closer security relationship with the US is necessary, as well as shore up support for the 2000-strong Canadian military presence in Afghanistan.

That commitment has been deeply unpopular in Canada, and Harper recently needed support from the bloc Quebecois to get it extended by 12 months in a close parliamentary vote.

Harper risked a lot of political capital in pushing the military deployment through. Now many will see him as a tough leader who was right all along.

Naturally, Canada's Liberal Opposition smells a rat, and there will be intense interest--as there should be--in the detail of the evidence against each of the accused. But for now, three tonnes of ammonium nitrate and some mobile phone detonators make a pretty convincing case for Harper's view of the world.

Source:
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19362704-2703,00.html