I See A Man in a Blue Sweater Vest ... He's Laughing Maniacally and Shouting "Finally, a Majority!"

The pundits dust off their crystal balls and peer into Canada's political future in 2011.

Sun Media’s swami-in-chief Ezra Levant predicts that there will be a federal election in 2011, and that thanks to the Conservatives’ aggressive “ethnic outreach,” Harper could be heading for a majority. That outreach has so far consisted of appointing ethnically diverse politicians as candidates and senators, and Levant’s prediction rests on the cynical but unfortunately frequently true assumption that people will often vote for politicians simply because they look like them.

The Toronto Star’s editors are seeing 2011 through Liberal-tinted glasses. While predicting that an election this year would likely result in a Conservative minority, the Star forecasts that because Canadians are fed up with the bickering that accompanies minority governments, the opposition will be emboldened to form a coalition and take over. In the Star’s estimation, this means it will have to be a majority or nothing for Harper, because he’s precluded the possibility of the Conservatives forming a coalition by constantly demonizing anyone in the opposition who suggests it.

The Ottawa Sun’s editors foresee another year of being “nickel and dimed” by Ottawa. “We're paying more to governments that are constantly giving us less in the areas we want it, and putting us into debt throwing money into areas we never asked for,” says the Sun, quoting from just about every Sun Media editorial ever. The Sun wonders if, after two terms of ballooning spending and deficits, this might be the year that Harper unleashes “the ideologue we all know is lurking underneath” and starts cutting taxes and spending. What exactly happened to Harper’s conservative credentials has become the $55.6-billion question, but it’s clear that so far they’ve taken a back seat to compromises needed to sustain his minority government. If he does manage a majority however, the Sun might get its wish.

The Vancouver Sun’s Barbara Yaffe helpfully picks out ten MPs to watch for this year, and topping the list is Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who is poised to make history by winning her party’s first-ever seat in the next election.