The troubled U. S. -Canada relationship might be fixed by______.

The relationship between the U. S. and Canada should be as placid as Lake Ontario on a calm summer day. The border is undefended. Their peoples seem like cousins. Each is the other’s largest single trading partner. Yet there has been serious friction between the two neighbors in recent years — friction that might now be eased by the surprise election of a new Canadian Prime Minister.

The best news for international security is that East Asia will remain relatively quiet in 2016. Political leaders in China, Japan and India are preoccupied with all-important domestic economic-reform plans and can’t afford conflicts that are bad for business. Compared with Europe and the Middle East, East Asia should remain calm — unless North Korea surprises us.