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.
Some are , some arenot, there is a whole spectrum same as here.BUT THEY ALL TEND TO BE FISCAL CONNSERVATIVES.Witness their banking and investing system. No mortgages granted without submitting a tax return to a lender, for example, like they did and still do here at times.Bank and investing oversight that WORKS.Thats fiscal conservatism at work.
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Way to go, Canada!!
Thank you for reminding me. I was a Canadian (so was my husband) and my parents and sisters still are (so are his) ... last night I made a comment to them that if things didn’t get better here soon, we might go back ... and then you reminded me of one of the reasons we like it here. I will never be able to survive Ontario winters again. I will think of that and work harder in 2012 to bring the change we need.
Thank you for reminding me. I was a Canadian (so was my husband) and my parents and sisters still are (so are his) ... last night I made a comment to them that if things didn’t get better here soon, we might go back ... and then you reminded me of one of the reasons we like it here. I will never be able to survive Ontario winters again. I will think of that and work harder in 2012 to bring the change we need.
Was that a typo, or are you trying to confuse yourself, or worse, me? In my book, Tories = Conservatives = Traditionalists. Unless, as you imply, there really is a "higher Tory" among traditionalists, which would surely be gilding the lilly. Of course, we can always try harder, can't we, striving justifiably.
The Liberals appear to have been the “moderate socialists”, while the NDP are openly socialist. The Canadian people seem to have decided to stop being moderate, and either go with the conservatives or the socialists.
The long gun registry will be toast now. I am thankful as a registered clay shooter myself. Not sure about the hand gun laws though.
Lol - that’s what I said to one of our suppliers who dropped in this morning and asked how I was.
I said, “Well, Osama Bin Laden is dead and Canada has a majority Conservative government.....how can I be anything but good!”
Yes, we now have Sun News, Canada’s answer to Fox!
We have much work to do here, “righting” the wrongs of liberalism.
Keep in mind, our tax freedom day is near the middle of July! That is largely because of our “free” health care. Truly disgusting.
Thank you for those links. They answered several of my questions. Unfortunately, as I suspected, there is little or no encouragement for pro-lifers or social conservatives in this election, other than that the most radical life haters and Marxists are not in the majority.
Oh man, living in Toronto, I am witnessing a full-on meltdown - lefty heads are exploding everywhere, what a sight!
Wow - wish I could experience THAT! Although, I am surrounded by Hamiltonians for the most part and Hamilton went NDP, as usual. Between labour unions and public education, it’s little wonder Hamilton is so far left.
Despite their gains, surely you are witnessing some pea-soup spitting lefties freaking over the Harper majority, no?
Good job Canada.
Yep, a gorgeous Aircraft, and they will be running off the Russians in the Canadian North.
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