It was just over a month ago, a foggy, grey November 11 in Vancouver. The self-described Last Canadian Capitalist gazes at the cruise ship he’ll soon take to Hong Kong — never, he says, to return.

Michael Walker, formerly of the Fraser Institute, a pro-business think tank, resumes his waterfront stroll and explains his imminent exile to a visiting U.S. reporter.

He chose the day — Remembrance Day, in Canada — deliberately. To him it commemorates the “free markets and free minds” formerly found in Canada — though neither were ever free enough for his liking.

And it’s one thousand days (âeoea three-year sentence, with three months off for good behavior,” he says wryly) since the stunning federal election victory of a left-wing coalition, known to Walker as the “Class Warriors.”

They were unprecedented — a breakaway faction of the venerable Liberal Party of Canada, dubbed the LPC (Laurierist-Trudeauist), under Maude Barlow, former aide to the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Barlow was supported by the perennial also-rans, the socialist New Democratic Party, led by Joe Clark. Clark, a former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister, hailed from the liberal or “Red Tory” portion of the old PCs.

During the campaign, Prime Minister Barlow was herself accused of being a socialist. Critics pointed, for example, to footage from a 2002 anti-globalization rally in which she raises a clenched fist and intones, “Long live the People’s Movement.”

But in a now-famous TV interview, she astonished the pundits: âeoeYes, I’m a socialist,” she said frankly — even a little menacingly. “I stand for democracy including economic democracy.”

Observers like Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail newspaper decried the “ambiguity” of phrases like “economic democracy,” but were ignored by an electorate seemingly indifferent to, if not pleased by, Barlow’s admission.

The interventionist leftists wasted little time in remaking Canada. Unemployment soared, temporarily, as the Minister of Finance, best-selling author and left-wing gadfly Linda McQuaig, began enforcing existing corporate tax laws to the letter. Previous governments, Simpson said, had taken a more “realistic” attitude to these taxes.

But the government remained popular, perhaps because of the “reform” of the Employment Insurance system, and tax changes encouraging corporate buy-outs — often at fire-sale prices — by so-called “employee co-ops,” which Walker describes as “Stalinist collectives.”

U.S. protests at Canada’s departure from the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were as ineffectual as the Commerce Department’s appeals against Canada’s new trade restrictions and so-called “social programs” to World Trade Organization (WTO) tribunals.

Early on, reports also surfaced that Americans visiting Canada — particularly hunters bringing rifles — were being fingerprinted and photographed. The new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Rohinton Mistry (another best-selling author, also Minister of Culture) quietly promised to rein in the “overzealous” conduct of some immigration officers, which appeared to abate. Nevertheless, such disputes left bad blood which may take years to dissipate.

Major newspapers, such as the National Post and Globe and Mail, and their parent TV networks, attacked the government vigorously, provoked by its campaign to break up “media monopolies.” But the campaign ultimately withstood legal challenges.

Inevitably, many senior journalists resigned, most to work for U.S. media outlets in Washington or New York. At the traditionally cautious Globe and Mail, lifestyle columnist Leah McLaren was briefly Acting Editor-in-Chief, before the paper’s new owners replaced her with the acerbic, left-of-centre former public radio personality Michael Enright.

Across the business world, in fact, corporate leaders wound up their affairs and angrily departed Canada for what they called “normal” countries. Many went to the U.S. and Britain, but as the exodus became a flood, others took refuge in China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

In downtown Vancouver, Mr. Walker shakes his head as he passes banks and office buildings now converted to markets and “co-op” housing. Just weeks before Christmas, the relative lack of tinsel and pre-Christmas sales is striking. Mr. Walker puts it down to the “impoverishment” of the country, dismissing surveys that suggest, with the typical work week now thirty-eight hours rather than forty-nine, Canadians are simply spending more time with family and friends and are less interested in Christmas buying. “Typical sycophantic spin from those social engineers at the [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation],” says Walker.

But recalling his own career, Mr. Walker mellows a bit. Holder of an economics doctorate, he was also a broadcaster, consultant and lecturer. This marks his thirty-third — and last — year as Executive Director of the privately-funded Fraser Institute. “The free market has been good to me,” he says.

Back at the Canada Place dock, curtly bidding the reporter goodbye, Mr. Walker walks to the cruise-ship staircase. Flashing his ticket impatiently, he climbs aboard without a backward glance, flapping a hand dismissively behind him.

The ship’s horn sounds, echoing off the North Shore mountains. Crew members in yellow rain gear scurry around, releasing mooring lines. A few bystanders watch, one or two waving slowly. But most passersby stroll along, barely glancing harbourward as the white ship bearing the Last Canadian Capitalist heads out toward the grey, still Pacific.