What a difference a day makes!
The Bloc Québécois has been nearly wiped out, losing official party status, and Gilles Duceppe has resigned as Bloc leader.
The New Democratic Party under Jack Layton has gone from 36 seats to over 100, grabbing most of the federal seats in Quebec. The NDP are now the Official Opposition for the first time.
Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, has succeeded in capturing the Greens' first federal seat, and finally gives the party representation in the House of Commons.
And Stephen Harper now has his long elusive majority government. A few Conservative casualties, like foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon in Pontiac, Gary Lunn in Saanich - Gulf Islands, and former Canadian Football League commissioner Larry Smith, weren't enough to dampen the big win. Bev Oda, Minister of International Co-Operation, who was under scrutiny for contempt of parliament, was re-elected.
The Liberals fell to third place for the first time in the party's long history. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff lost his own seat in Toronto, just two years after becoming leader. He too has resigned. Other high-profile Liberals who lost their seats were Gerard Kennedy, Ken Dryden and Martha Hall Findlay in Toronto. Former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion managed to hang on to his Quebec seat, as did Justin Trudeau and Marc Garneau. Bob Rae, a former NDP premier in Ontario, was also re-elected for the Liberals.
The unofficial 2011 Canadian federal election results are Conservatives 167; NDP 102; Liberals 34; Bloc Québécois 4; and Green Party 1.
Photo: Harper Wins a Majority Government
Mike Ridewood / Getty Images
Comments
Yay! Finally the Green party has a sit! I hope this is just the beginning.
Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May will shock Canadians in the future.
Sometime in the next couple of years she will offer former Liberal party Leader Stephane Dion, among the few Liberals re-elected in Quebec, the leadership of the Green Party of Canada.
He will accept — and lead the Greens into official Opposition in the next federal election.
can i move back now toCanada
Congratulation To Elizabeth May for the seat on the parliament. She deserve every good, but always women have to work much harder to gain trust of man world. I see her future will be to her party side. She is very honnest & hardworking leader with a very beautiful character.
I surprise that people think that aggressive leaders are successful. We need to change our vision to give credits to moral qualifications & peaceful leaders like Stephan Dion & Elizabeth May.
At last Canada has a real opposition party, the NDP, as the official opposition. This is hot stuff! Since 1867 it has alsways been the case of Feddle Dee vs. Feddle Dum (or Coke and Pepsi) with the Cons and Lies shadow boxing since both parties base their policies upon the banks and businesses that control them. Now all eyes are on the New Democratic Party to live up to its promise to be the party of the people. A noble challenge beckons!
The thing is, Big Oil…i.e. Harper… has a majority with 39% of the vote, so ye olde Industrial Revolution prevails, replete with reactionary anti-social policies and environmental destruction. But sentience, equality and democracy are required if we are to survive. Obviously, those traits are not available in Alaberta (spelling intentional) and Ontario. Maybe it’s the water–the fire water, that is.
Quebecers got sick of decades of corrupt creeps and voted in a bunch of delusional idiots. Oh Happy Day!