Posted on 05/02/2011 8:18:53 PM PDT by Candor7
Canadian voters have delivered Conservative Leader Stephen Harper his first majority government after five years of governing in a minority situation, CBC News projects. Meanwhile NDP Leader Jack Layton was set to become Official Opposition leader.
The NDP, according to projections, made a major breakthrough and appeared to have nearly tripled their seat count, while the Liberals — often touted as Canada's "natural governing party" — were poised to suffer a stunning historic electoral loss and place third.
As of 10:49 p.m. EST, the Conservatives were elected or leading in 164 seats, followed by the NDP with 103, Liberals with 32 and the Bloc with four. A party needs to capture 155 seats to win a majority in the House of Commons.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff trailed in his Toronto riding, based on early reports that also showed several prominent Toronto Liberals behind NDP or Tory candidates.
In Quebec, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe was trailing behind NDP candidate Hélène Laverdière in the riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie, in what was shaping out to be a disastrous night for the sovereignist party. Despite projected overall Tory gains, Lawrence Cannon and Jean-Pierre Blackburn, who served as ministers in Harper's cabinet, were defeated in their Quebec ridings.
In the battleground province of Ontario, Conservative Chris Alexander defeated Liberal incumbent Mark Holland in the coveted Greater Toronto Area riding of Ajax-Pickering.
According to early results, Conservatives and NDP made gains in Atlantic Canada at the expense of the Liberals, who have won the most seats in the region in every federal election since 1997. The Conservatives had 38 per cent of the vote, compared to 30 per cent for the NDP and 29 for the Liberals.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper waves after voting in Calgary on May 2. Todd Korol/Reuters In Labrador, the Conservatives won what was once considered a safe Liberal seat, with Peter Penashue defeating Liberal incumbent Todd Russell. The Tories had been shutout of the province following an "Anything but Conservative" campaign mounted in 2008 by former premier Danny Williams.
Meanwhile, in St. John's South-Mount Pearl, NDP candidate Ryan Cleary defeated Liberal incumbent Siobhan Coady.
The results come as many analysts were caught off guard during the campaign after polls suggested a surge of support for the NDP, specifically in Quebec, following the leaders' debate in French.
Layton took advantage of this apparent spike, saying that voters were tired of both the Conservatives and Liberals and that the "winds of change" were in the political air.
The polls also forced Harper and Ignatieff to alter their strategy and focus more on the NDP leader.
Harper returned again and again to one main theme, repeatedly stressing the need for a Conservative majority. He warned that Canada’s economic stability was at risk if the opposition parties had enough seats following the election to form a coalition or some other power sharing arrangement.
His warnings prompted accusations of hypocrisy from Layton and Duceppe, who claimed Harper was prepared to seize power through a coalition agreement after coming second to Paul Martin's Liberals in 2004. But Harper rejected the charge.
Although Harper had initially targeted a possible Ignatieff-led government, propped up by other parties, his focus in the later days of the campaign switched to the possibility of Layton in power.
For his part, Ignatieff slammed Harper over his handling of the economy and accused the Conservative leader of disrespecting the institution of Parliament.
He ran ads questioning if Harper could be trusted with "absolute power" and reminded voters that Harper shut down Parliament twice and had been held in contempt of Parliament.
Ignatieff had said he would like to stay on as leader regardless of the outcome of the federal election.
Yep, the Holly weird folks will not move to Canada until they retire and want to make money on property investments.Canada has an economy. Obama deep sixed our economy along with his false Osama Bin Laden body.
Read a blog last week about the affect this election would have on oil prices if the liberal party took power. Harper’s gov’t has been friendly to the oil/shale industry where the U.S. gets the largest % of its imported oil. This has kept oil prices lower than it would be now if environmental controls were not relaxed. Not saying oil is currently cheap, but it would have gotten worse by way of price for U.S. consumers had Harper not won.
Had the NDP won, it would have implemented the same disastrous policies that led Ontario voters to toss out Bob Rae’s provincial NDP government after just five years in power.
While 61% of Canadians voted for parties of the Left (and they’re a stupid lot) their vote is so badly splintered between three leftist parties that the Conservatives were able to win an outright majority with just 39% of the vote.
Canada is far from being a center-right country in majority terms. Trudeaupia has to be reversed incrementally, piece by piece. That’s why Harper is not going to make any radical moves despite his new majority. He will change things one step at a time.
Thanks SJB! What a great day!
He/she seems to be arguing with munin at post #33.
Check out the home page. ;-) OMG, OMG!
What does all of this mean for Canada, bottom line? Reversal of loony leftist laws, or merely the maintenance of the status quo?
That’s what I love about this election...massive FAIL by the Liberals. Force an election and then get your *** handed to you...
I think Harper will pass a lot of laws trhat wer defeated previously by a slim margins. Ending the long gun registry for one.
I also expect to see incentives for businiess expansion in the feld of resource development, especuially oil and mining, as well as transortation subsidies for truck fuel and rail in certain industries.
Harper could also build some really big hydro electric dams in the North, in 5y ears the USA will need the power and the market for selling surplus power is very secure in the USA, since Obama is doing nothing about that except blowing smoke out if his a$$.
So move already!
Lookin for land in Nova Scotia
What about social policy, the oppression and criminalization of Christianity?
That’s wonderful!
I have never been there.
The word “turnout” (as in “higher Tory turnout”) was left out (rather essential word to have skipped over...) ...I corrected myself later but I guess that wasn’t seen...
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