By now you’re almost certainly aware that the Conservatives won a minority in last night’s federal election (just as I predicted). During his concession speech, Paul Martin announced he will not lead the Liberal party in the next election. There are three main things about the election I found interesting:
- The magic number of 155 is hard to find, which means things will be especially intriguing. All the parties realize we don’t want to vote again right away, so it makes it even more important that they try to work together.
- The Conservatives gained a fair number of seats in Quebec. One wonders what this means for the separatists!
- I didn’t expect a completely blue Alberta, but that’s what we ended up with.
I followed the results online last night, and watched some of the post-election commentary on CBC. I don’t have much to say really, except that I hope the minority government doesn’t collapse right away. Lots of other people have far more interesting things to say than me:
- Darren Barefoot welcomes our new Robot Overlords
- Jeremy Wright predicts we have at least two years of stability ahead
- Colby Cosh nicely sums up what Paul Martin stepping down means: “Some dreams weigh heavy–especially the ones you inherit from a famous father.“
- David Green (an American) wanted to become a Canadian, but now he wants to cry
- Vlad, another American, says life as we know it is over
There’s lots more interesting commentary if you do a quick search on Technorati or IceRocket or one of those. Seems to me that many Americans are not happy with our new government!