JLF friend Michael Barone makes his living analyzing election trends.
His latest column notes similarities in the most recent elections involving all three North American Free Trade Agreement nations: Mexico, Canada, and the United States.
All chose center-right governments by narrow margins, installed by
minorities of the voters. Calderon’s 35.9 percent of the vote in a
three-party system is eerily similar to the 36.3 percent won by Stephen
Harper’s Conservative Party in Canada’s four-party system. We all know
about Bush’s two elections. All three leaders have been opposed
vociferously, indeed often considered illegitimate, by the metropolitan
elites of New York, Toronto, and Mexico City. All three beat parties
that claimed only they had national reach–the Democrats here, the
Liberals in Canada, and PRI in Mexico–but that were tarred with
scandal when they were voted out of office.
Read the full column to learn why the similarities do not surprise Barone.
