<snip>
A U.S. right-wing strategist says Canadians are "so liberal and hedonistic" that Stephen Harper can't hope to change their philosophy of "cultural Marxism" right away.
Given time, however, the Conservative prime minister-designate may straighten them out, Paul Weyrich writes.
Weyrich, a Washington fixture since the 1970s, runs a conservative think tank called the Free Congress Foundation.
His contribution to the Harper election effort was to distribute an e-mail last week urging fellow U.S. right-wingers not to talk to Canadian reporters
"Canadian voters have been led to believe that American conservatives are scary and if the Conservative party can be linked with us, they can perhaps diminish a Conservative victory," he warned.
He turns his attention to Canada again this week in an article posted on the foundation's website.
He says he talked to two Canadian Conservatives after the election – one optimistic and one pessimistic about Harper's chances of changing Canada.
The pessimistic view was that Harper, lacking a parliamentary majority, can do little to make Canadians
"adopt a more reasonable view of the United States" and abandon Marxist principles "such as same-sex marriage and abortion on demand,"Weyrich says.
"Harper is pleased that the media and many in his own party are nay-saying," he writes. "Harper thinks that such pessimism would lower expectations and give him additional latitude to accomplish his agenda.
"Harper's game plan apparently is to pit the federalist Liberals against the Bloc Québécois and the decentralizing Bloc against big-government Liberals.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/01/27/weyrich-harper060127.html