The Conservatives' Stephen Harper will remain in power as the votes poured in Canada. The win comes with a minority government, leaving Harper with what he was hoping to fix when he called for this election five weeks ago.
The government is still in the same situation it was in when this election was called. Quebec proved to dash Harper's hopes for a majority government.
Once a Grit stronghold, Ontario proved a hard sell for the Liberals. The Liberals also didn't fare well in Central Canada.
In Nova Scotia the Green party Leader Elizabeth May lose her riding.
Yahoo quotes May:
"We ran an exuberant, a joyful and a positive campaign," said the Green party leader.
"And if the kids five years up could have voted, I would have won by a landslide."
The Liberals faced a huge defeat as the final tallies are coming in. By midnight the Tories had won in 144 ridings out of a possible 308. The Liberals lost about 20 ridings falls to just 75 spots. The Bloc Quebecois has 48 seats and the NDP has 38 seats.
Jack Layton won his riding in Toronto. He is quoted on
CTV:
No party has a mandate to implement an agenda without agreement from the other parties," Layton said. "I believe the people of Canada have called upon all parties to put aside the acrimony that arises in campaigns, and to come together in the public interest. So we're going to do exactly that."
With only a 37-day campaign this election had one of the shortest possible campaign periods allowable by Canadian law.
In the end Harper will sleep tonight at 22 Sussex Drive with much the same government that he ran Monday morning.
"It's difficult to see ... how the prime minister comes back to the people of Canada, at the end, of the day and says this election was worth something," former Liberal cabinet minister Brian Tobin told CTV News
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Wins Second Conservative Minority
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