Stephen Harper first became Prime Minister in 2006 and has already dramatically transformed the old Canada. But with no election due for four more years, we ain't seen nothing yet.

It's in the nature of true believers and ideologues to believe that any means to their sacred ends are justified. This makes them extremely dangerous people. It's also typical of such people that they're often motivated by unfathomable resentment and anger, a compulsion not just to better but to destroy their adversaries. These are good descriptions of Stephen Harper and those closest to him.

Canadians aren't used to parliamentary government, in large part because we aren't used to federal politics built around real differences between our major parties over real issues. Instead, we are used to two conservative parties squabbling over mutual (often accurate) accusations of corruption, and over symbolic issues -- most with little meaning to the daily lives of citizens.

Canadians have therefore long tuned out federal politics between elections. But that all changed on May 2nd.

We now have some real choices on offer in federal politics, and real debate over real issues. Like, for example, whether or not people have the right to withhold their labour if they don't like the pay they're being offered by their bosses.

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: 

From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back into bondage."

In the 1951 British general election, the British Conservative Party and the British Labour Party scored 96 per cent of the vote between the two of them. Other parties (notably the British Liberals) received the table scraps. Fast-forward fifty years. In the 2010 British general election, after many years of steady decline, the British Conservatives and Labour received only 65 per cent of the vote between the two of them. Other parties (notably the Liberal Democrats) received the balance.

That is the underlying trend that led to the current "hung Parliament" -- bringing Britain into line with most other European countries, which are mostly governed by multi-party parliaments and by multi-party governments.

It is a trend that is mirrored in Canada.