Canadian Election Story

When Canadians went to the polls Monday, it was expected that Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party would win their third House of Commons election in a row. However, the margin of victory by the Conservatives was unexpected: they had earned a majority and the New Democratic Party becoming the official opposition, thanks in part to major gains in Quebec by the NDP and major losses by the once-mighty Liberal Party who last held power in 2004. The Liberals now only hold four seats west of Ontario, three of which are in Vancouver. However, they weren’t the only victims; the Bloc Quebecois, Quebec’s separatist party, lost a mammoth 43 of their 47 seats and lost major party status. Both the Liberal and Bloc leaders, Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe respectively, lost their seats in the House of Commons and resigned their party leaderships. It was also a first for the Green Party as Elizabeth May became the first member to be elected to Parliament, part of the largest female contingent to go to Ottawa.

The Conservative majority was ironic, seeing how the elections were brought on the actions of a coalition between the Liberal, NDP and Bloc. A vote of no confidence in Harper was brought on March 25th, and an election was called for May 2nd. Many saw the vote as Ignatieff’s chance to ascend to become Prime Minister, but instead Ignatieff lost his riding and the Liberals now hold the least amount of seats in their history.

One of the more interesting stories of the campaign came from the riding of Berthier—Maskinongé, an hour north northeast of Montreal. The NDP candidate and winner of the seat, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, is an assistant manager at a bar in Ottawa, 400 kilometers or 165 miles away. That was not the only controversy surrounding Brosseau and her campaign: she took a vacation to Las Vegas in the heat of the campaign, the revelation that her boss did not know she was a candidate, and spoke very little French in a riding where French is the first language for 98 percent of residents. In addition, Miss Brosseau did not campaign for the seat and allegations of election fraud have been brought up by both the Conservatives and Liberals.

While Canadians now have election stability until November 2015, how the minority parties react to the repercussions of the election will be very interesting.