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May 2, 2011
Conservatives capture their majority with NDP forming
an historic opposition
May 02, 2011
Richard J. Brennan and Bruce Campion-Smith
Conservative leader and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper
speaks during a campaign rally in London yesterday.
CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS
The Conservatives have finally captured its elusive majority government in tonight’s federal election with the NDP taking its historic place as official opposition, pushing aside the Liberals to a humiliating third place finish.
It would be the first time in Canadian history that the Liberal party does not finish either first or second.
The night was full of surprises, but in the end Stephen Harper got what he has so long sought after – a healthy majority. Unconfirmed results had the Tories winning or leading in 167 ridings, well above the 155 seats needed to form a majority government.
The NDP was on track to almost triple the 36 seats the party held at dissolution. At this time the party holds 105 seats, the Liberals far back with 33.
The early results showed the Liberals were getting pounded in Ontario and the Conservatives poised to make a breakthrough in Toronto, in the riding of Eglinton Lawrence with Liberal Joe Volpe trailing. It even looked like Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s riding could even go down tonight.
In the 905 belt around Toronto long-time Liberals MPs were falling, including Ruby Dhalla in Brampton-Springdale and Mark Holland in Ajax-Pickering where he conceded to political novice Chris Alexander, former ambassador to Afghanistan.
One of the stories of the night was the orange wave across Quebec, the NDP reducing the Bloc to single digits.
And it looked like the Green Party won a seat in the House of Commons for the first time with party leader Elizabeth May leading in Saanich-Gulf Islands.
In Atlantic Canada, the Conservatives lead for the first time in 23 years. Unconfirmed results had the Conservatives with 13 seats, Liberals 12 and NDP, 12. At dissolution throughout the region, the Liberals held 17 seats, the Tories had 11 and the NDP, four. The Liberals have won the most seats in the region in every federal election since 1997.
It appears the much-talked-about surge by the NDP — it picked up two new seats at the expense of the Liberals — has contributed mostly to vote splitting, allowing the Tories to come up the centre. The Conservatives picked up three new seats, up nearly seven per cent in support.
Former journalist Ryan Cleary easily won the riding of St. John's South-Mount Pearl in Newfoundland in what was expected to be a tight race. He defeated Liberal incumbent Siobhan Coady and Tory candidate Loyola Sullivan, a former provincial cabinet minister.
“We did it, Jack! We did it!” Cleary yelled at a rally.
“Can you feel the winds of political change sweeping across Newfoundland and Labrador?
“Those winds are stirring a sea change in Canadian politics —a sea change that begins here.”
In Nova Scotia, where the first NDP government in Atlantic Canada was elected two years ago, star NDP candidate Robert Chisholm won Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, unseating Liberal Mike Savage. Savage, the son of a former Nova Scotia premier, held the riding since 2004.
Early rumours that Conservative heavy-weight Peter MacKay, who was defence minister in the last government, could go down in Central Nova turned out to be just that —rumours. In fact, he won handily.
Returning to politics after 18 years, Bernard Valcourt, who served in the Mulroney government, won the northwestern New Brunswick riding of Madawaska-Restigouche.
The NDP’s historic success came about as result of a strong performance by Layton, who defied political predictions and naysayers who questioned whether he would have the stamina for a tiring campaign just weeks after surgery to repair a broken hip.
Yet as he hit the trail with cane in hand, voters, especially those in Quebec, embraced Layton as the “new” guy, a surprising twist for a politician who has led the NDP in Ottawa for the last eight years and campaigned in three previous elections.
As Harper and Ignatieff traded partisan shots, Layton seemed to engage voters with his folksy relaxed style and upbeat messages. He came into the campaign as the most popular leader and thanks in part to two solid debate performances, transformed that popularity into a surge of support for the NDP.
Harper made plain his election ambition from the start, when he stood on the front steps of Rideau Hall on the campaign’s first day. After falling short three times before —2004, 2006 and 2008 —he declared that he was going all-out this time to win a majority and put an end to the cycle of minority governments.
And he darkly warned that another minority Conservative would never get a chance to govern, toppled by opposition rivals who would seek to form government themselves.
“Imagine a coalition of arch-centralists and Quebec sovereignists trying to work together. The only thing they’ll be able to agree on is to spend more money and to raise taxes to pay for it,” he said.
Ignatieff quickly denied any plans to form a coalition with the NDP or Bloc but that didn’t stop Harper from raising the prospect at every campaign stop.
Harper ran the classic front-runner campaign, staying in a bubble, restricting journalists’ questions and avoiding unscripted moments with everyday voters.
It was a slow and steady election style that included a modest platform that put a focus on restraint. They were a number of tax breaks aimed at families —some post-dated years away, after the deficit was eliminated.
But Harper’s real sales pitch to voters was stability, saying the security of a majority mandate would allow a Conservative government to focus on Canada’s priorities.
“If we have a minority government, my fear is we will go through a fifth election and a sixth election,” he said at one point in the campaign.
In the early weeks, Harper and his Conservatives seemed immune to a string of controversies.
Harper shrugged off the unprecedented contempt of Parliament ruling that sparked the election in the first place, dismissing it as little more than political bickering. And an initial finding from Auditor General Sheila Fraser that the $50 million G8 legacy fund may have been misspent in a Conservative-held Muskoka riding put the heat on the Tories for a few days but soon fizzled out.
Ignatieff came into the campaign as the rookie —it was his first election —on a mission to better the Liberal Party’s lackluster 2008 campaign, when Stephane Dion campaigned on a carbon tax.
There was no such polarizing policy this time. Instead, the Liberal platform put a focus on family-oriented pledges to help with education, caring for ill relatives and strengthened pensions.
Ignatieff hit the campaign under a question mark, formed by months of aggressive Conservative ads that sought to paint the one-time Harvard professor as an out-of-touch elitist.
The Liberal leader fired back that this election was a choice between his party’s plans for “compassionate, responsible” government or Conservatives’ “disrespect for democracy.”
On the campaign, Ignatieff surprised many with his ability deliver rousing stump speeches without notes and his willingness to take unscripted questions at packed town halls, a stark contrast to Harper’s obsessively controlled campaign.
But to Ignatieff’s growing frustration, polls showed that the Liberals, despite a largely gaffe-free performance, weren’t connecting with voters and began slipping in the polls.
The federal election comes five months before two provincial elections in the region. Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island have scheduled votes in October.
source: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...-with-ndp-forming-an-historic-opposition?bn=1
Conservatives capture their majority with NDP forming
an historic opposition
May 02, 2011
Richard J. Brennan and Bruce Campion-Smith
Conservative leader and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper
speaks during a campaign rally in London yesterday.
CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS
The Conservatives have finally captured its elusive majority government in tonight’s federal election with the NDP taking its historic place as official opposition, pushing aside the Liberals to a humiliating third place finish.
It would be the first time in Canadian history that the Liberal party does not finish either first or second.
The night was full of surprises, but in the end Stephen Harper got what he has so long sought after – a healthy majority. Unconfirmed results had the Tories winning or leading in 167 ridings, well above the 155 seats needed to form a majority government.
The NDP was on track to almost triple the 36 seats the party held at dissolution. At this time the party holds 105 seats, the Liberals far back with 33.
The early results showed the Liberals were getting pounded in Ontario and the Conservatives poised to make a breakthrough in Toronto, in the riding of Eglinton Lawrence with Liberal Joe Volpe trailing. It even looked like Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s riding could even go down tonight.
In the 905 belt around Toronto long-time Liberals MPs were falling, including Ruby Dhalla in Brampton-Springdale and Mark Holland in Ajax-Pickering where he conceded to political novice Chris Alexander, former ambassador to Afghanistan.
One of the stories of the night was the orange wave across Quebec, the NDP reducing the Bloc to single digits.
And it looked like the Green Party won a seat in the House of Commons for the first time with party leader Elizabeth May leading in Saanich-Gulf Islands.
In Atlantic Canada, the Conservatives lead for the first time in 23 years. Unconfirmed results had the Conservatives with 13 seats, Liberals 12 and NDP, 12. At dissolution throughout the region, the Liberals held 17 seats, the Tories had 11 and the NDP, four. The Liberals have won the most seats in the region in every federal election since 1997.
It appears the much-talked-about surge by the NDP — it picked up two new seats at the expense of the Liberals — has contributed mostly to vote splitting, allowing the Tories to come up the centre. The Conservatives picked up three new seats, up nearly seven per cent in support.
Former journalist Ryan Cleary easily won the riding of St. John's South-Mount Pearl in Newfoundland in what was expected to be a tight race. He defeated Liberal incumbent Siobhan Coady and Tory candidate Loyola Sullivan, a former provincial cabinet minister.
“We did it, Jack! We did it!” Cleary yelled at a rally.
“Can you feel the winds of political change sweeping across Newfoundland and Labrador?
“Those winds are stirring a sea change in Canadian politics —a sea change that begins here.”
In Nova Scotia, where the first NDP government in Atlantic Canada was elected two years ago, star NDP candidate Robert Chisholm won Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, unseating Liberal Mike Savage. Savage, the son of a former Nova Scotia premier, held the riding since 2004.
Early rumours that Conservative heavy-weight Peter MacKay, who was defence minister in the last government, could go down in Central Nova turned out to be just that —rumours. In fact, he won handily.
Returning to politics after 18 years, Bernard Valcourt, who served in the Mulroney government, won the northwestern New Brunswick riding of Madawaska-Restigouche.
The NDP’s historic success came about as result of a strong performance by Layton, who defied political predictions and naysayers who questioned whether he would have the stamina for a tiring campaign just weeks after surgery to repair a broken hip.
Yet as he hit the trail with cane in hand, voters, especially those in Quebec, embraced Layton as the “new” guy, a surprising twist for a politician who has led the NDP in Ottawa for the last eight years and campaigned in three previous elections.
As Harper and Ignatieff traded partisan shots, Layton seemed to engage voters with his folksy relaxed style and upbeat messages. He came into the campaign as the most popular leader and thanks in part to two solid debate performances, transformed that popularity into a surge of support for the NDP.
Harper made plain his election ambition from the start, when he stood on the front steps of Rideau Hall on the campaign’s first day. After falling short three times before —2004, 2006 and 2008 —he declared that he was going all-out this time to win a majority and put an end to the cycle of minority governments.
And he darkly warned that another minority Conservative would never get a chance to govern, toppled by opposition rivals who would seek to form government themselves.
“Imagine a coalition of arch-centralists and Quebec sovereignists trying to work together. The only thing they’ll be able to agree on is to spend more money and to raise taxes to pay for it,” he said.
Ignatieff quickly denied any plans to form a coalition with the NDP or Bloc but that didn’t stop Harper from raising the prospect at every campaign stop.
Harper ran the classic front-runner campaign, staying in a bubble, restricting journalists’ questions and avoiding unscripted moments with everyday voters.
It was a slow and steady election style that included a modest platform that put a focus on restraint. They were a number of tax breaks aimed at families —some post-dated years away, after the deficit was eliminated.
But Harper’s real sales pitch to voters was stability, saying the security of a majority mandate would allow a Conservative government to focus on Canada’s priorities.
“If we have a minority government, my fear is we will go through a fifth election and a sixth election,” he said at one point in the campaign.
In the early weeks, Harper and his Conservatives seemed immune to a string of controversies.
Harper shrugged off the unprecedented contempt of Parliament ruling that sparked the election in the first place, dismissing it as little more than political bickering. And an initial finding from Auditor General Sheila Fraser that the $50 million G8 legacy fund may have been misspent in a Conservative-held Muskoka riding put the heat on the Tories for a few days but soon fizzled out.
Ignatieff came into the campaign as the rookie —it was his first election —on a mission to better the Liberal Party’s lackluster 2008 campaign, when Stephane Dion campaigned on a carbon tax.
There was no such polarizing policy this time. Instead, the Liberal platform put a focus on family-oriented pledges to help with education, caring for ill relatives and strengthened pensions.
Ignatieff hit the campaign under a question mark, formed by months of aggressive Conservative ads that sought to paint the one-time Harvard professor as an out-of-touch elitist.
The Liberal leader fired back that this election was a choice between his party’s plans for “compassionate, responsible” government or Conservatives’ “disrespect for democracy.”
On the campaign, Ignatieff surprised many with his ability deliver rousing stump speeches without notes and his willingness to take unscripted questions at packed town halls, a stark contrast to Harper’s obsessively controlled campaign.
But to Ignatieff’s growing frustration, polls showed that the Liberals, despite a largely gaffe-free performance, weren’t connecting with voters and began slipping in the polls.
The federal election comes five months before two provincial elections in the region. Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island have scheduled votes in October.
source: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...-with-ndp-forming-an-historic-opposition?bn=1
