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.
We got Obama because of those Iowan liberals.
I just read where Canada had their first conservative news cable station. ‘FoxNews’ Canada. Go Canada!
Conservatives rule. Now we need to git ‘er done down here!
Harper makes Obama look like a goose stepping psychopomp.He’s got a vbrant economy,a safe, efficient banking and investment system, oodles of natural resources,while Obama has nothing but the shuck and jive, and a covert freeze on all resource development in the USA.
This is the start of Canadian economic ascendency.The Canadian dollar now trades at 1.06 USD.And thats with propping down the value of the CD by the Bank of Canada.
Canada, all your shoppers ARE belong to us! LOL.
Head for Bangor lads! Beer on me!
I am thinking of moving home.
RIGHT ON! Liberals got wiped out!
What a shocker in Quebec, the separatists.....destroyed by the communist NDP. Can you imagine the NDP's Jack Layton making election promises to bolster medicare and pensions....absolutely no concept of where the money comes from. Here's hoping the Conservatives can truly make some big changes now for the first time in 6 years of minority governments.
Yep....the lesser of 4 weevils.
“If they are in control of the rudder,” the Canadian currency “is going to take off,” Dean Popplewell, an analyst in Toronto at the online currency-trading firm Oanda Corp, said of the Conservatives.
And bring the ALE along!
Good picture, but why does the Canadian high five have players from Buffalo and Boston in it?
Wow, Liberal Party in Canada falling below 19%.Conservatives winning, increasing Harper’s majority. The bad news: NDP (Socialists) picking up a lot of the Liberal drop-off.
Here’s hoping the Conservatives can truly make some big changes now for the first time in 6 years of minority governments.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
They can change Canadas arcane gun laws for starters.The long gun registry HAS GOT to go.And the restricted weapons regulations, need to be trashed, so Canadians can look after themselves instead of relying on big brother. Love to see THAT!
What’s a “conservative” in Canada? What a liberal is in Iowa?
ACTuLLY,STEVEN hARPER IS A BALLANCED FISCAL AND SOSIAL CONCERVATIVE and is posibly the best prime minister Canada ever had Now we will have stability for the next four years
the opposition is the new democratic party and is quite left leaning, but Harper can not be blackmailed with such a large majority should be good
I’m at the Harper victory party right now. It’s awesome here!!
BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
GUFFFAAWWWWWHAWHAWHAW!
SNort, Snort-Snort....
Sniff
Ahem, sorry about that
Gee, you know...I feel much better now!
Popplewell is right. Thats why my entire estate has been in Canadian currency for the last three years.I made 20% in 24 months.And the way Obummer is printing green backs it will go a lot higher.
Give the Harp a pluck for me!
Exactly right!
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