Moore: A Palin presidency would be good for Canada

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Charles W. Moore, in an op-ed published by the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, says that Sarah Palin has become "a force to be reckoned with - not just in U.S., but in North American politics":

Ms. Palin, currently a Fox News commentator, whose memoir, Going Rogue, is a bestseller, actually has a strong pro-Canadian record, although she's granted little credit for it in Obama-besotted Canuck public perception.

As governor of the border state of Alaska, after signing an agreement granting TransCanada pipeline US$500 million to help launch a new 2,700-kilometre pipeline project to carry natural gas from Alaska to Alberta, Ms. Palin affirmed her desire to "grow the relationship we have with Canada," observing that the NAFTA has enhanced job-creation and growth in both countries.

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In Calgary Ms. Palin, speaking without notes, opened by highlighting commonalities shared by Alaska and Alberta with their respective histories of independent thinking and economies heavily dependent on energy production. She also cited her own Canadian roots, noting that both of her great-grandfathers were Canadian prairie born and bred, one from Manitoba, the other from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan - quipping: "that must be where my love of moose came from." (A member of the U.S. National Rifle Association, Ms. Palin is an avid hunter and outdoorswoman).

Ms. Palin also recalled that when she was young, fellow Alaskans would travel to Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon for medical treatment. She praised Vancouver's successful Winter Olympics, graciously congratulating Canada's dramatic men's hockey gold medal victory over the American team, and riffing on her own family's affinity for the game.

She praised the Harper government's approach in balancing response to calls for environmental reform, particularly cutting carbon emissions, with the economic realities of energy production, predicting that cap-and-trade proposals to reduce emissions will lead to fewer jobs and heavier tax burdens.

Moore reminds his readers that in the middle of 1977, the very idea that Ronald Reagan, with whom Sarah Palin has much in common, could win the presidency by a landslide in 1980 would have been unthinkable, and he cites both Reagan and Harry S. Truman as evidence "that one doesn't have to be a 'public intellectual' to be an effective and successful president.

Moore's conclusion: Don't count Sarah Palin out yet, and a Palin presidency would likely be good for Canada, "regardless of what many Canadians think they think" about her.

- JP