The Discovery Institute had a forum on the election yesterday, with Roger Simmons, former consul general and former Liberal member of Parliament, and Don Alper, who heads the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University.

Canada, which has a parliamentary system, already had a minority government of the Conservatives under Stephen Harper, who called the election in an effort to win a majority. He almost did; his party gained 16 seats, though it fell short of the 155 needed to have a majority. Its candidates won 37.5 percent of the vote--a proportion that to an American sounds low for a victory, but the Canadians have five serious parties, several of which split the vote of the left.

The New Democrats are a socialistic party that grew out of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in the 1930s. The Liberals won't merge with them because the New Democrats don't believe in the market. The Greens, which are a relatively new party, include those who are "free-market oriented but who have an incredible commitment to the environment," Alper said. The Greens didn't get any seats, but they won 7 percent of the vote, which is a gain for them.

Interesting note: Stephane Dion, the Liberal Party leader, campaigned almost entirely on the creation of a Green economy through a carbon tax. It was a big loser. The lesson, said Alper, was, "You cannot base your entire platform on a tax, particularly a tax no one understands."

Simmons said the Liberals' Dion was a failure as a politician--"he doesn't have a single political bone in his body"--and came across too much like his previous incarnation: a college professor of poltical science.

Bottom line for Canadians: No change in their government. For the U.S.: no change in relations. So maybe it's understandable that in the U.S. papers it was, if covered at all, below the fold.