She may lack Lula's charisma. But the election of Brazil's first female President is seen as a vote for continuity after two terms under the wildly popular departing leader, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. And Canadian companies say Brazil's allure is as strong as ever.
Mr. Lula, a left-leaning, business-friendly pragmatist, oversaw policies that lifted 21 million Brazilians out of poverty with 15 million new jobs created since 2003. Barred by law from running for a third straight term, he is leaving office with an 85-per-cent approval rating.
Dilma Rousseff, who was elected Sunday to take the reins of one of the world's hottest economies, views him as her mentor.
Ms. Rousseff, 62, said Monday her top priority is to eradicate poverty without driving up spending. It's a tall order. Brazil may be one of the world's most attractive these days to foreign investors, but it's still grappling with a strengthening currency, poor education and underdeveloped infrastructure.
Brazil has long been viewed as a boom-and-bust economy. The trick now will be to ensure the growth is sustainable and balanced.
"I don't see any dramatic shifts" in policy from the previous eight years, said Nick Chamie, global head of emerging markets research at Royal Bank of Canada. "One thing she'll have to do, in relatively short order, is prove she's going to follow a generally orthodox economic policy."
Mr. Chamie visited Brazil at the end of August, and describes the economy "rip-roaring," with consumer spending, infrastructure activity, real estate and business investment all booming. RBC expects Brazil's economy will surge 7.7 per cent this year.
Ms. Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla who was jailed and tortured by the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, is a member of the Workers' Party, the same party as Mr. Lula. She previously served as Brazil's energy minister but had never before run for elected office.
Canadian companies with business in Brazil say Ms. Rousseff's election doesn't alter their confidence in the country. Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin has been in Brazil since the 1960s and now has 2,200 employees in the country. It bolstered that presence this month with a joint venture to develop infrastructure such as road-building, airports and projects relating to the coming FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. His firm wants to expand further in the country through both alliances and acquisitions.
"The growth opportunities in Brazil are by far bigger than anywhere else in South America," said Elias Ray, the company's vice-president of development for South America, in an interview from Miami. He doesn't see a big policy shift with the new President. "This is not a short-term bubble that is going to burst. It's sustainable."
Calgary-based energy firm Gran Tierra Energy Inc. sees the country as a key market – a view validated by news last week of a major oil discovery there. "Brazil is an important opportunity. We don't foresee any political changes influencing our commitment to Brazil," spokesman Jason Crumley said.
Brazil is Canada's third-largest trading partner in Latin America after Mexico and Peru; trade between the two countries hit $5.2-billion in 2008.
In the near term, observers will be watching Ms. Rousseff's appointments to key posts such as finance minister and head of the central bank. They will also eye how she'll keep a lid on government spending, and whether she'll intervene in currency markets.
Not everyone is sanguine about her election. Walter Molano, head of research at BCP Securities, does not see Ms. Rousseff as more of the same. "I do think the surprise will be later on, when Dilma doesn't turn out to be Lula. She's definitely going to be much more radical in her approach, less pragmatic, less consensus-building, much more ideological, and she's going to push for a bigger role of the state."
It's too soon to know whether Ms. Rousseff will emerge as a capable leader in her own right or, as the Economist magazine sniffed, "just Lula in lipstick." Then again, when Mr. Lula was first elected, there were plenty of skeptics about his abilities, too.
With files from Bloomberg News.