American Republicans urged to look north at Stephen Harper campaign for inspiration

While the Republican Party in the United States gears up for the 2012 presidential election, many in the media are encouraging the GOP to look north for inspiration.

An influential U.S. website suggests the Republicans "follow Canada's lead" in reference to our recent election.

"Canada's Conservatives roll to victory on a platform of lowered sales and corporate taxes, avoiding climate-change legislation, promoting Arctic sovereignty and upping military spending. Is the GOP listening?" noted the editorial writer.

"There are more than a few timid Republicans who could take a leadership lesson from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper."

Other Republican-leaning analysts are also counselling the party to look north.

Reihan Salam of the dailynews.com penned a column titled, "Our neighbors to the right." In it he wrote, "Harper reinvented himself as a tenacious defender of middle-class interests. Like their Republican counterparts, Canada's Conservatives are often accused of only defending the interests of the rich.

"The Conservative policy agenda has thus made a point of emphasizing the burdens facing cash-strapped families, particularly those with young children . . . (The Republican presidential candidates) need to give Harper a call."

One reporter even advised the GOP take a page from the Conservative party's ethnic outreach handbook:

"The Conservatives' triumph offers a couple of lessons that may be relevant to U.S. Republicans. One is that smaller government policies, far from being political poison, are actually vote-winners," wrote Michael Barone of the Washington Examiner.

"The second is that a center-right party can win immigrant votes. Conservatives won 35 of 54 seats in metro Toronto, many heavy with immigrants. One tactic that seems to have worked was to circulate videos of Indian- and Chinese-Canadian Conservative candidates appealing for votes in their native tongues."

As they say, imitation is the best form of flattery.

(CP Photo)