The Canadian Election Results
Stephen Harper has won re-election for Canada’s Conservative Party, picking up some seats but still falling short of the 155 seats needed to be a majority Government.
The Conservatives were almost wiped out in 1993, being reduced to two seats, so to win two elections in a row shows how far they have come.
The seats are:
- Conservatives 143 (+19)
- Liberals 76 (-27)
- Bloc Québécois 50 (-1)
- NDP 37 (+8)
- Independents (+1)
The Greens lost the one seat they had picked up at a by-election and got 7% nationally. On the popular vote the Conservatives only went up 1.4% from 2006,l but the Liberals dropped 4.0%. The election was partly called to capitalise on the weak Liberal leadership. Their result of 26% is the lowest for them in the history of Canada and Stéphane Dion is likely to be rolled. I would watch Gerard Kennedy as the possible new leader.
Interestingly, compared to NZ, Dion lobbied for the Greens leader to be included in the Leader’s Debate in Canada, and her (Elizabeth May’s) performance in the debate is cited as bleeding support from the Liberals. Clark and Key may look at that with satisfaction.
Canada does have a rural/urban split. And a provincial split. In Alberta the Conservatives won all 27 seats I think. But they did not win a single seat in Toronto or Montreal and only one seat in Vancouver. Their lack of appeal in the three big cities is what stopped them getting a majority.
Pleased to see my friend Patrick Brown in Barrie increase his majority from 1,523 in 2006 to a massive 15,195. He is one of the hardest working politicians I have come across. During the 2006 campaign, in the middle of winter, he would be the most enthused about getting out door knocking every day, and keeping going until it was dark. And this was trudging through snow with the temperature 30 degrees below zero.