The Canadian electorate, characteristically one of the most docile in the democratic world, suddenly seemed to have awakened from their sleep last week and decided that they had had enough. A poll, highly credible because it was conducted for the left-leaning Globe and Mail, showed a startling 10-percentage-point leap in electoral support for the Conservative Party. It was enough to assure them a minority government in the general election Jan. 23, with the bare possibility of a full majority. Moreover, the response to the poll of the Liberal Party and its leader, Prime Minister Paul Martin, was so strident that...
