Roughly a year ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper wobbled on the political ropes, or so his opponents believed, retreating in Parliament and forced to resort to a prorogation to save his hide. Today, Mr. Harper runs a stable government that operates almost as if it were a majority.
Mr. Harper's poll standings, for what they count, have improved a notch. He controls his caucus with a customary iron fist. The recession, far from harming his government, proved to be a godsend, allowing him to live out every politician's dream, sprinkling billions of dollars across the country without serious criticism.
Best of all, Mr. Harper's principal political adversaries made him look even better. A politician can't count on the stupidity of adversaries, but when stupidity arrived in the form of a hollow Liberal threat to bring down the government, what could have been better luck? As Frank Sinatra once crooned, Mr. Harper had a very good year.
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