Expect to see a lot more of this man in your morning paper. His name’s John Boehner, and he’s the Speaker of the House of Representatives. You may remember him as President Barack Obama’s nemesis from budget negotiations past. Well, he and the president are about to renew their acquaintances. This morning, Canada’s national papers, far from celebrating Obama’s win, focused largely on Boehner’s and Obama’s greatest immediate challenge: that massive roadblock to stability known as the “fiscal cliff.” The potentially massive spending cuts and tax increases that could spark an American recession has almost every single analyst of note, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, worried. So get ready for headlines aplenty, because this will be the news for a while. Harper’s still in India, by the way, where he scored what’s become the normal amount of press for this trip: a friendly photo-op, this time in the Sikh holy city of Anandpur Sahib; prominent play in a couple of papers; and nothing hugely critical, now that the armoured car affair has mostly faded away.

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What’s above the fold this morning?

The Globe and Mail leads with  U.S. President Barack Obama’s immediate challenges as his second term in the Oval Office commences. The National Post fronts a similar story about Obama’s upcoming struggle against the “fiscal cliff.” The Toronto Star goes above the fold with the “crisis” facing Republicans in America. The Ottawa Citizen leads with its own teaser of the looming battle over the fiscal cliff. iPoliticas fronts the real source of Canada-India nuclear cooperation (spoiler alert: it’s America). National Newswatch showcases Michael Harris in iPolitics following up on a story earlier this week about a Conservative MP who allegedly played a role in a Manitoba journalist losing a reporting gig.

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Stories that will be (mostly) missed

1. Legal spending. The federal government spent $500 million on legal fees last year, writes the Ottawa Citizen. A wide swath of departments saw fees increase by wide margins.	2. B.C. pot sales. The Globe reports that Washington’s successful ballot initiative to legalize marijuana could cut deeply into British Columbia imports of pot south of the border.
3. Bluefin catch. Environmentalists are worried that Canadian officials will seek an increased allowable annual yield of bluefin tuna, a move that has plenty of critics around the world.	4. PQ tackles corruption. Quebec’s governing party tabled legislation that would set fixed election dates; reduce the allowable amount for political contributions; and increase a vote subsidy.

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