Perusing my morning read, I see that something is being made of the fact that Prime Minister Stephen Harper congratulated Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday "without mentioning the word 'coalition'." However, as the article notes toward the end, neither did President Barack Obama, which suggests that there's nothing really to make of this omission. In fact, in my experience in the PMO, these congratulatory calls are traditional gestures between leaders who will be dealing with each other directly and are designed to get the relationship off to a good start.
Still, no doubt reporters looking to embarrass Mr. Harper will be looking for an early opportunity to ask him for his thoughts about the coalition that will govern Britain. Personally, I see no need for him to be defensive on this matter.
For one thing, the Prime Minister could note that the British coalition is perfectly legitimate since Liberal-Democrat Leader Nick Clegg had made it clear throughout the campaign that the party that won the most seats should be given the first crack at governing the country. And neither Mr. Cameron nor Gordon Brown dismissed the possibility of getting together with him after the election - as Stéphane Dion did in 2008.
Things would have been quite different, Mr. Harper could note, had Mr. Clegg instead gotten together with Mr. Brown's Labour Party which, as Jeffrey Simpson noted yesterday, "lost" the election. And the prospect of the governing coalition surviving at the whim of the Scottish Nationalist Party was truly frightening.
As to the Cameron coalition's prospects, Mr. Harper could simply note that the new government has some difficult problems to deal with and that, like most Canadians, he wishes Mr. Cameron and his colleagues every success.