By historical standards, the Conservative majority that Canadians have elected is a small one. With 103 seats, the NDP has as much representation as any second-place party has ever had.

But to say Stephen Harper’s majority is smallish would be to veer wildly off the mark.

It could be argued that on May 2 Canada elected its most powerful government ever, a juggernaut stronger than the 200-plus seats majorities of John Diefenbaker or Brian Mulroney, a government with fewer obstacles in its path than the heavyweight Liberal governments, a government that could well be here for a three-term or 12-year run.

It sounds farfetched until you examine the infrastructure of power and the control Stephen Harper now has over it.

What other prime minister has enjoyed, in combination, all the following advantages:

A fractured opposition and decimated Liberal party.

An overpowering political machine that doubles and triples rivals in financial resources.

A preponderant media advantage with most of the big fourth-estate players on side.

A public service more submissive than ever before.

Agencies and watchdog groups that are intimidated or stacked with governing party partisans.

A majority in the Senate and the House, plus command over an increasingly dysfunctional parliamentary committee structure.

A bossist structure in the governing party that allows no dissent from within.

Some governments have enjoyed many of these advantages, as well as some others listed below. But none has had them all. In the Canadian system, there are few checks and balances on a majority government. As has been written many times, power has evolved to the prime minister at an unrelenting pace. The trend reached its apex with the recent election. If there are any checks left, they are hard to find. Constitutional experts say it is largely up to the prime minister to respect the conventions of the system and establish his own limits of power out of respect for democracy.

But what gives this majority government even more thrust is the domineering character of Mr. Harper who has shown no hesitation in challenging the authority of the legislative branch and running roughshod over other obstacles.

Though few were impressed by his campaign, the election result turned out perfectly as far as he is concerned. The Liberals have been reduced to third place, an advantage Conservatives have never before enjoyed. Mr. Harper has the added benefit of having as his chief opponent a party of the left which, through its history, has rarely registered support above 20 per cent.

In the past, Tory majorities were usually reliant on a fragile coalition of the West and Quebec. Now the Conservatives have the West and Ontario, a more reliable alliance that will have added weight when, through redistribution, the West and Ontario gain 30 or more seats.

The fundraising advantage of the Tories is greater than ever, allowing this prime minister to pummel opponents with attack ads between elections — campaigns that opponents can’t afford to counter. It will only get harder for them when the PM fulfills his pledge to eliminate public subsidies for political parties.

In the media, the Harper superiority can hardly be overstated. Among the country’s major media, the NDP, incredibly enough, does not have a single message supporter unless one counts the Toronto Star, which is traditionally Liberal. The country’s media proprietors are hardly fans of left-leaning ideology. By and large their sympathies reside with the Conservatives.

Two huge chains, Sun Media and Postmedia, are strongly conservative. The two national newspapers, the National Post and the Globe and Mail, are conservative. Maclean’s is run by a conservative. AM radio is largely right wing.

As with fundraising and seat distribution, the advantage on the media front is broadening. There is the addition of Sun TV, a network devoted to conservative causes run by a former Harper adviser. The Diefenbaker and Mulroney governments would have given anything to have so much support in the media infrastructure.

Controlling the message is the key to power. Many wonder why the many revelations of ethical corruption don’t stick to the Harper Conservatives. One reason is because the media — particularly the conservative media — don’t stick with them. They move on to the next-day’s news.

Mr. Harper’s well-known penchant for secrecy and message control got a welcome boost last week with a Supreme Court decision on privacy that his team will likely interpret as a licence to withhold any information it pleases. Retirements at the Supreme Court give the prime minister power to give the court, if he chooses, a more conservative lean.

Majority governments of old often faced challenges from within. In the cabinets of those administrations were regional power barons who could stand up to the prime minister of the day. Today’s cabinet is under Mr. Harper’s thumb. The prime minister faces no prospective challenger, unlike Jean Chretien, who enjoyed many of the same power advantages but was constantly looking over his shoulder at Paul Martin. In past governments such as that of Mackenzie King, senior civil servants held power that could put checks on the Prime Minister’s Office. Not so today. In past governments, watchdog agencies weren’t run by lapdog appointees.

Not to be overlooked on the power meter is the influence this government has gained in ethnic communities and in the powerful Jewish community that used to support the Liberals but now is largely behind the Conservatives.

Not to be overlooked — and a credit to Mr. Harper’s skills — is one of most powerful on-the-ground political organizations Canadian politics has ever seen.

All things considered, the prime minister is outfitted with a power package that is unprecedented in scope. A new conservative era has taken root and Stephen Harper is in position to reshape Canada for almost as long as he chooses.