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Stephen Harper bound himself to the hip of Barack Obama yesterday, and finally left George W. Bush behind.

Although it's still unclear how close Mr. Obama and Mr. Harper will find themselves on such issues as climate change, the fact that the Prime Minister called yesterday's meeting a new chapter in U.S.-Canada relations suggests that where Mr. Obama goes, Mr. Harper will be quite happy to follow, especially if it's a place far away from Crawford, Tex.

The knock on Stephen Harper as George Bush copycat is no more.

Consider, for example, Mr. Harper's position on carbon reduction, which has always been portrayed as much closer to that of Mr. Bush than to the European Union's. Although Mr. Harper and Mr. Obama agreed yesterday to a fairly modest proposal aimed at developing new technologies such as carbon sequestration, it's difficult to see how the two men will not move together on the file after agreeing to start a dialogue.

“My hope is that we emerge from this process firmly committed to dealing with an issue that ultimately the Prime Minister's children and my children are going to have to live with for many years,” Mr. Obama said.

While Mr. Harper said it's far too early to talk about harmonizing the two nations' approaches to carbon reduction levels, he would have a tough time taking a significantly different international position from Mr. Obama without isolating Canada on the world stage. And going along with the Bush policy earned Mr. Harper reams of criticism from environmental groups and other nations that he will not have to endure under an Obama administration.

Another area of common interest where Mr. Bush's absence might help is Afghanistan. Saying yes to Mr. Bush for an extended Canadian presence in that country would have been impossible for Mr. Harper, given the former president's record in Iraq. But saying yes to Mr. Obama on Afghanistan would carry considerably less risk.

Although it may appear that hewing closely to the new President gives Mr. Harper less independence, it may be a welcome development for a Prime Minister who many think needs to move to the political middle.

In other words, Mr. Obama and his immense influence give Mr. Harper a good out with his conservative political base. Those voters – many of whom fear that taking too much action on global warming will harm the western economy – may be quieted by the fact that Mr. Harper has little choice but to fall in line with the U.S.

As for Mr. Obama, he gets a fair bit out of yesterday's meeting as well. In trying to re-engage with the rest of the world, the U.S. President will be able to point to unity with his northern neighbour, which is led by a man ideologically quite different from himself. It will be interesting to see whether the two leaders maintain the same policy on settling the intractable Middle East conflict.

Of course, the Prime Minister , trying to maintain a little distance, won't completely abandon criticizing the U.S.

Mr. Harper was tough enough yesterday when dealing with what the government believes is a misconception in the way Canada handles border security.

But he saved his strongest criticism for what went on before Mr. Obama, suggesting at one point that Canada really couldn't get on with much on climate change until Mr. Obama got to office. He conveniently avoided mentioning that his government joined Mr. Bush's in actively opposing aggressive climate-change policies.

“I'm quite optimistic that we now have a partner on the North American continent that will provide leadership to the world on the climate-change issue,” Mr. Harper said. He didn't need to say who he was talking about.