Watched the election coverage on CBC. Canada will have a minority Conservative government - the second in a row for Stephen Harper. It's a stronger minority this time - if there is such a thing as a strong minority. It's a good night for Harper's Conservatives in that they gained some seats in places they had not expected to. It's a bad night in that they failed again to achieve a majority government, which was the whole reason why Harper broke his own law (in a sense) and called an early election - to try to take advantage of a weak opposition.
The CBC is saying the numbers suggest this election will have the lowest voter turnout
ever in our history - under 60%. Many Canadians may be shaking their heads over what seems to be a mostly pointless election, one that has cost $300 million to run.
Some trivia:
Highest voter turnout in Canadian history: 79.4% in 1958
Lowest voter turnout in Canadian history: 60.9% in 2004
Voter turnout for 2008: 58.3% (tentative)
There is also, according to CBC reports, a strong sentiment online calling for electoral reform in the country - especially among those who voted Green, one presumes. Despite the Greens capturing around 3% of the popular vote, that still did not translate into a single seat in Parliament. Even Green leader Elizabeth May couldn't unseat incumbent Conservative Peter McKay, who is Defence Minister in Harper's cabinet. But it should be said that McKay was expected to retain his seat, and he did so comfortably. As for Liberal leader Stephane Dion, basically the writing is on the wall for him. He has led the Liberal party to one of the worst showings in its history. There will be an automatic Liberal leadership review come next May, but the consensus among the commentators is that Dion will be asked in private to step down to avoid the embarrassment of being forced out of his job at the review. Some of the CBC commentators even speculated that Harper may contemplate stepping down at some point, due to the personal disappointment of not gaining the majority mandate he so wanted. But personally I doubt that will happen. And Jack Layton's NDP: they captured 37 seats, but it's still shy of the record 43 that the party snagged all the way back in 1988. So the NDP remains in limbo land, even though they may (or may not) hold the balance of power in the House of Commons.
Comedian and political satirist Rick Mercer said it well: of all the federal leaders, the only one who comes out of this with any job security is the Bloc Quebecois' Gilles Duceppe - and he's a separatist!
It will be interesting to see how long this 2nd term minority gov't will last. Some are calling it a de facto majority because none of the other parties will want to topple the Conservatives any time soon - certainly not the Liberals who need time to put their own house in order after an election result that, for them, borders on disastrous.
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Thought they were about the closest to radicals you guys had. 
