O, Canada

One day after the most exciting Canadian election in more than a decade, Bloomberg News typifies the US response to the contest, which saw Liberal Paul Martin return as head of a minority government.

Why should Americans be concerned with the result? Two reasons stand out. First, the separatist Bloc Québécois scored its most impressive performance ever, reviving talk of a referendum for separatism--with all of the economic uncertainty such an initiative would produce.

Second, the outcome of the vote in British Columbia might represent a foreshadowing of the fall election here, regarding the role of the Nader vote and the Greens in some statewide or House contests. Conservatives captured 22 ridings (districts) to 8 for the Liberals and 5 for the leftist New Democrats. Yet the majority of Conservative victories came with a plurality of the vote, and in five ridings, the Conservative candidate prevailed by less than 2,000 votes, with the left-of-center vote divided between the Liberals and the NDP (and, occasionally, the Canadian Greens, who received more than 2% of the vote and thus are eligible for government financing the next time around).