Canada's new leader faces uphill fight

The winner of Canada's election began facing the challenge yesterday of pushing his Conservative Party agenda of tax cuts and more defence spending through a Parliament he does not control.

Stephen Harper, a 46-year-old economist who will be the country's first right-wing prime minister in 12 years, won 124 of the 308 seats in Parliament in Monday's election, relegating the scandal-plagued Liberals to the opposition benches.

Mr Harper, who also wants to calm fractious ties with Washington, has nowhere near the 155 seats he needs to control a 308-seat Parliament where his party has no natural allies.

He will grapple with the same problems as the man he ousted, 67-year-old Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, who also led a minority government and was forced from office with 133 seats after 17 months on the job.

The vote was as much a protest against a tired Liberal government as it was a vote for Mr Harper, whose opponents accuse him of wanting to impose a far-right social agenda on Canada.

"Canadians did not endorse neo-conservatism when they elected him last night," the Globe and Mail said in an editorial. "They voted against a Liberal Party that had become smug and arrogant."

Mr Harper, the first prime minister from the powerful oil-rich western province of Alberta in 25 years, was due to return to Ottawa yesterday and to meet Mr Martin soon to decide when power would formally change hands - a date Conservative officials said was likely to be in two or three weeks' time.

Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than 18 months and the gossamer-thin nature of Mr Harper's administration means there is little chance he will bow to demands from some in his party to clamp down on gay marriage and abortion.

Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay struck a conciliatory tone yesterday, telling CBC television that the party could cooperate with others in Parliament on political reforms, child care, the environment and health care.

"There is a general acceptance... that the Parliament has to work in the better interests of all," he said. In recent months Mr Martin had adopted an increasingly aggressive tone with the White House, which quickly congratulated Mr Harper on his win.

"The United States and Canada have a strong and broad bilateral relationship and we look forward to strengthening our relations and working with the new government," said spokesman Scott McClellan.

Mr Martin, who was brought down in November over a kickback scandal, said he would quit as party leader before the next election.