Conservatives take Canada

[ucrzymofo87]

A Pro-Bush conservative has been elected Prime Minister of Canada. Looks like US-Canadian relations will improve as well as a more cohesive view on the war on terrorism. Also, I wonder where all the liberal Hollywood activists will threaten to go in 2008 now that Canada is conservative? Perhaps North Korea?

Canadians awarded Conservative Leader Stephen Harper with a minority government Monday, putting an end to more than 12 years of Liberal rule.

Polls across the country are closed and all but a handful of seats are left to account for.

As of 12:45 a.m. ET, the Conservatives were in line to take 124 seats, versus 103 for the defeated Liberals.

But prime minister designate Harper will be denied the 155 seats needed to lead a Tory majority, meaning he'll have to rely on the backing of at least one opposition party to survive in the 308-seat House of Commons.

Martin to step down

In a concession speech in front of a roomful of cheering party faithful in his Quebec riding of LaSalle-Emard, Liberal Leader Paul Martin said: "There will be another chance and there will be another time."

But that next chance won't come under his stewardship. Martin announced he will step down as Liberal Leader shortly, triggering what will likely be a heated leadership race.

"My dedication to the Liberal family will never wane," said Martin. "But I will not take our party into another election."

Martin said he had called Harper on the phone to congratulate him.

The Bloc Quebecois has won 51 seats, while the NDP currently sits at 29.

With 94 per cent of the vote counted nationally, the Conservatives were at 36 per cent support, compared with 30 for the Liberals, 17 for the NDP, 11 for the Bloc, and four for the Green party.

Support for the Tories took off when the polls closed west of Atlantic Canada.

As expected, the Conservatives dominated in the West, taking most seats in the Prairies and sweeping all 28 seats in Alberta.

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan could not hold on to Alberta's lone Liberal seat in Edmonton Centre. She was defeated by Tory Laurie Hawn, a former fighter pilot.

But it was in battleground Ontario where the Conservatives made a big breakthrough, with most of the polls showing they're on track to take a dozen or more seats than the 24 they won in 2004.

Canada's largest city, however, remains solidly Liberal with two exceptions: one that has fallen to NDP Leader Jack Layton, who won his Toronto-Danforth riding; another to Layton's wife Olivia Chow, who has won a seat in a Toronto riding for the New Democrats. The two have become the Commons' second husband-and-wife team.

Belinda Stronach, despite her notorious decision to cross the floor and prop up the Liberal government last year, coasted to victory in her riding north of Toronto.

In Quebec, the Conservatives seem to be making crucial gains in the province that shut them out in 2004.

Early results indicate the Tories are elected in eight ridings, while the Liberals are tied with the same number, and an independent candidate has secured one seat.

But the Tories didn't make the breakthrough they were hoping for in Atlantic Canada.

Although a late surge in the polls had the Conservative Party gaining momentum in Atlantic Canada, Paul Martin's Liberals managed to hang on to their traditional stronghold.

The Liberals won a majority in Atlantic Canada with 19 of the region's 32 seats -- compared to 10 for the Tories and three for the NDP.

Deputy Tory Leader Peter MacKay -- widely expected to get a high-profile cabinet post should the Conservatives win -- won re-election in his Nova Scotia riding of New Glasgow.

Former NDP leader Alexa McDonough was also re-elected in the Nova Scotia riding of Halifax.

Although there were concerns Liberal Public Works Minister Scott Brison could lose his Nova Scotia seat of Kings-Hants, he recaptured it easily. Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott also hung onto his Fredericton, N.B. riding.

All four major party leaders won their ridings.

Praise from a former PM

Brian Mulroney, the last man to lead the Tories to power, praised Harper on Monday for leading the Tories to victory.

"It's a tremendous tribute to Stephen Harper for what he was able to do in bringing about tonight's victory," Mulroney told CTV from West Palm Beach, Fla.

Mulroney also gave Harper kudos for engineering the merger of the old Conservative party and the Canadian Alliance -- and then devising a campaign strategy and executing it flawlessly.

"Reaching out to Peter MacKay to unify the party, then to move the party to the centre, then to devise a campaign strategy and finally to execute it flawlessly, these are marks of leadership.

"And Stephen Harper demonstrated that leadership in a great degree.''

Mulroney said he was particularly thrilled with the gains the Tories were able to make in Quebec.

Indeed, the gains allows the Tory Party to claim it's now truly a national party. But the Liberals faired better than pollsters expected.

"They're sticking around," said CTV's chief parliamentary correspondent, Craig Oliver.

"They'll be a significant opposition force, and in a good position to restore itself, to rebuild their credibility and rebuild they're party. But it'll have to do it under a new leader."

Campaign review

Martin ended up in the fight of his political life against Harper. His Liberals took a pounding in the polls with voters upset over allegations of government scandal and a rash of urban gun violence, including a brazen Boxing Day shootout that killed a 15-year-old bystander in downtown Toronto.

Harper capitalized on those concerns, promising to get tough on corruption and to crack down on gun crime with mandatory minimum sentences.

Just before the New Year, the RCMP announced an investigation into an income trust announcement by the Liberals. That's when the Grits dropped sharply in the polls and the Conservatives rose -- at one point leading the Liberals by 18 points in a Strategic Counsel survey.

In the end, Harper succeeded in convincing voters that it was, in fact, time for change.

But although Harper never suggested it himself, Conservatives were hoping a majority was in the cards. In the end, Canadians may have listened to Martin's message of caution, trimming the Tories' power and forcing them to cooperate with other parties in the next Parliament.

The Conservatives have a big challenge ahead of them. The 10 minority governments that Canada has seen have never lasted longer than two years, limited by their ability to get bills passed.

So unless the Conservatives are able to form a coalition with another party, another election could be on the horizon.

NDP gains

Layton, meanwhile, spent the final weeks of the campaign urging voters to consider his party as a legitimate third option, and that only the New Democrats will be able to protect social values from the Tories.

It seemed to have worked, with his party gaining stronger levels of support not seen since the 1980s.

Anything short of 30 seats would have been a disappointment for New Democrats after running a smooth, disciplined campaign that targeted key ridings the party lost by narrow margins in 2004.

source

[TheDarkness]

i really don't get why you call that system you people havethere so democratic in the first place. Here in holland you can choose between a lot of political groups making the people in the parliament a more mixed group with more interests of the people actually beeing seen to.

That said the only thing i really know is the american President and that said i think that he needs to get sacked. I don't care who is next a liberal or a conservative but it's best that this whole iraq mess would get resolved and bush does not even plan on doing that.

[Killfile]

The Parliamentary system has long been considered far more democratic than the two-party with executive system that the US has.

To ucrzymofo -- remember that Conservative in Canada and Conervitive in the United States don't mean the same thing. Canada's political center is a lot closer to Europe.

[panasonic]

ya, dont compare your conservatism w/ ours. besides, we dont give absolute power to the prime minister, and since our governement also has an opposition, other people are represented through the opposition to keep the party in power under control

[Ellen]

i really don't get why you call that system you people havethere so democratic in the first place. Here in holland you can choose between a lot of political groups making the people in the parliament a more mixed group with more interests of the people actually beeing seen to.

That said the only thing i really know is the american President and that said i think that he needs to get sacked. I don't care who is next a liberal or a conservative but it's best that this whole iraq mess would get resolved and bush does not even plan on doing that.

I don't really understand who you're aiming this at.

In Canada, practically anyone can be voted into our House of Commons, there are a lot of different parties that are out there, it's just that there happens to be four major ones that people recognize (Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic and Bloc Quebecois). We also have parties such as the Green Party (whose main issues include environment and legalization of marijuana), the Communist Party, the Marxist Leninist Party and others depending on which region of Canada you're in. You don't even need a party to be a part of the House of Commons, there are independent candidates that can also get in. These are called "Independents" and have equal say in the matters of teh country as all other members of the House of Commons including the Prime Minister. If I really wanted to, I could even register and run as a candidate. There

That being said, Canadians have a LOT of choice. I feel this was a disadvantage this particular election however because it was obvious that Canadians wanted a more left-wing government, but the votes were split between the Liberals and the NDP. Many of the ridings I saw would not have elected the conservative candidate if you tallied the numbers that voted for the two left wing groups.

Conservatism in Canada has also changed drastically in the last decade as the party has tried to garner more votes from the less wealthy, non-corporate population. Their support comes from the prairies where you have oil-rich families and other large corporations. Their right-wing ideals have scared most Canadians away prior to the 1990's. So conservatism in Canada is no longer completely religiously minded and is much less harsh than the days of the Reform Party.

Another thing to note is that in Canada, we don't vote for the Prime Minister. We vote for the candidate that will represent our region in the House of Commons and thus get a "seat". The party that wins the most seats in the House becomes the "Government". And then, generally, the leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister. It has however occured in teh past that the leader of the party did not win their own riding, and as such, did not get a seat in the House. In this case, the party chooses another person to be the leader and Prime Minister.

So there are many differences in what you have claimed and what happens in Canada. I hope you now you will no longer believe that our government and electoral process is anything like the United States.

[Eldo]

Harper will have some problems having some of his policies going pass, he didn't win by a landslide as earlier polls predicted, but about 10 seats more than the Liberals. So yeah, he may have some problems with the 'cohesive war on terrorism', if he should be crazy enough to go down that path.