FORGET the cowboy. The true all-American hero is the confidence man: breezy, self-invented, ambitious, protean. So too with Canada. Ignore the scarlet-jacketed Mountie who is strong of jaw and pure of heart. Up here, the voyageur -- a jaunty, indomitable, unpretentious, rough-hewn New World figure -- is closer to the mythical Canadian heart. But...
AN outsider watching the Canadian election today may be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is about. A centrist Liberal government is about to be replaced, if the polls are correct, by a centrist Conservative one. Like its predecessor, the new government will probably hold only a minority of the seats in Parliament, meaning it will have to work...