Prime minister-designate Stephen Harper, his wife Laureen Teskey, kids Ben and Rachel celebrate the win in Calgary, Alberta on Monday. (CP / Jeff McIntosh) Liberal Leader Paul Martin takes the stage in Montreal after his party's defeat on Monday. (CP / Jonathan Hayward) NDP Leader Jack Layton sports a smile as he addresses supporters in Toronto on Monday. (CP / Andrew Vaughan)

Stephen Harper wins Conservative minority

Updated Mon. Jan. 23 2006 11:06 PM ET

Phil Hahn, CTV.ca News

Canadians granted Conservative Leader Stephen Harper a minority government Monday, putting an end to more than 12 years of Liberal rule.

Results show Conservatives won 124 seats, versus 103 for Paul Martin's Liberals.

"Tonight, friends, our great country has voted for change," the prime minister-designate told a crowd of supporters at his home riding of Calgary Southwest.

"And Canadians have asked our party to take the lead in delivering that change. Tonight I am saying to all Canadians that we will respect the trust you have given us, we will keep our word, we will honour that trust, we will deliver on our commitments."

Harper then reached out to the regions, repeating a campaign promise to solve the fiscal imbalance and promising to let the Atlantic provinces keep their offshore resource money.

The West, he said, will now have the voice in Ottawa it has long sought.

But Harper fell short of the 155 seats needed to lead a Tory majority, meaning he'll have to wheel and deal and curry favour of at least one opposition party to support him in the 308-seat House of Commons.

The Bloc Quebecois won 51 seats, while the NDP took 29 -- a double-digit gain from the 2004 election. All four major party leaders won their ridings.

By the end of the night, the Tories won roughly 36 per cent of the popular vote nationwide, compared with 30 per cent for the Liberals, 17 per cent for the NDP and 10 per cent for the Bloc.

Martin to step down

Addressing a roomful of cheering party faithful in his Montreal riding of LaSalle-Emard, Martin said: "There will be another chance, and there will be another time."

But that next chance won't come under his stewardship.

Martin said he will continue representing his riding, but he will be stepping down as Liberal Leader.

"My dedication to the Liberal family will never wane," said Martin. "But I will not take our party into another election."

Martin said he called Harper on the phone to congratulate him on his victory.

"The people of Canada have chosen him to lead a minority government. I wish him the best," said Martin. "We differ on many things, but we all share a belief in the potential and the promise of Canada, the desire of our country, to succeed."

Region by region

Support for the Tories took off when the polls closed west of Atlantic Canada.

As expected, the Conservatives dominated in the West, taking 48 out of 56 seats in the Prairies and sweeping all 28 seats in Alberta.

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan could not hold on to Alberta's lone Liberal seat in Edmonton Centre. She was defeated by Tory Laurie Hawn, a former fighter pilot.

But it was in battleground Ontario where the Conservatives made a breakthrough, seizing 40 seats after winning 24 in the last election.

Canada's largest city, however, remained solidly Liberal, with a few notable exceptions: NDP Leader Jack Layton won his Toronto-Danforth riding, while his wife, Olivia Chow, won her Spadina-Trinity riding for the New Democrats. The two have become the Commons' second husband-and-wife team. Peggy Nash of the NDP also defeated Liberal incumbent Sarmite Bulte, who was seeking a fourth term.

Belinda Stronach, despite her infamous decision to cross the floor to back Martin's minority Liberal government last year, rode to an easy victory in her Newmarket-Aurora riding north of Toronto.

In Quebec, the Conservatives won 10 ridings and increased their share of the popular vote by more than 17 per cent in the province -- gaining a significant foothold in the province that shut them out in 2004.

Tory candidate Lawrence Cannon -- a likely member of a Harper cabinet -- won his Pontiac riding.

The Bloc Quebecois, however, held its ground, winning 51 of Quebec's 75 ridings, although its popular vote slipped seven per cent while the Liberals' was down 14.

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe promised Quebecers a "responsible" opposition in the next Parliament.

"We will make sure Quebec moves forward because we know everything that makes Quebec move forward moves us forward toward sovereignty," he said.

The Tories won 10 seats in the Atlantic -- including Deputy Tory Leader Peter MacKay, who was re-elected in his Nova Scotia riding of New Glasgow -- but it wasn't the breakthrough they were hoping for.

A late surge in the polls had the Conservative Party gaining momentum, but the Liberals managed to hang on to their traditional stronghold, winning 19 of the region's 32 seats.

There were concerns Liberal Public Works Minister Scott Brison could lose his Nova Scotia seat of Kings-Hants to the Tories, but he recaptured it easily. Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott also hung onto his Fredericton, N.B. riding.

The Grits, however, lost more than four per cent in popular vote in the region, while the Tories saw theirs climb to about 5 per cent.

Praise from a former PM

Brian Mulroney, the last man to lead the Tories to power, praised Harper on Monday for engineering the merger of the old Conservative party and the Canadian Alliance.

"Reaching out to Peter MacKay to unify the party, then to move the party to the centre, then to devise a campaign strategy and finally to execute it flawlessly, these are marks of leadership," Mulroney told CTV from West Palm Beach, Fla..

Mulroney said he was particularly thrilled with the gains the Tories were able to make in Quebec.

Indeed, the gains allow the Tories to claim they now form a truly a national party. The Liberals, however, fared better than pollsters expected.

"They're sticking around," said CTV's chief parliamentary correspondent, Craig Oliver. "They'll be a significant opposition force, and in a good position to restore itself, to rebuild their credibility and rebuild their party."

Power broker

NDP Leader Jack Layton, meanwhile, was able to increase his caucus with 29 members, up from 18 at dissolution, and improve on his party's share of the popular vote to levels not seen since the 1980s.

His determined effort in the final weeks of the campaign to tell voters that his NDP is the only choice when it comes to protecting social programs and public health care seemed to have worked.

Layton hailed his party's gains as a victory for "ordinary Canadians."

"Our Canada puts ordinary Canadians first, and tonight, ordinary Canadians by the millions put their trust in the NDP and took a big step forward."

The campaign

Martin ended up in the fight of his political life against Harper.

Despite Martin's repeated warning that a Tory government would sacrifice Charter rights and limit access to abortion, the Liberals took a pounding in the polls with voters upset over allegations of government scandal and a rash of urban gun violence.

Harper capitalized on those concerns, promising to get tough on corruption and to crack down on gun crime with mandatory minimum sentences.

In the end, Harper succeeded in convincing voters that it was time for a new leadership.

But although Harper never suggested it himself, Conservatives were hoping a majority was in the cards. In the end, Canadians may have heeded Martin's message of caution, trimming the Tories' power and forcing them to cooperate with other parties in the next Parliament.

Allan Gregg, chairman of polling firm The Strategic Counsel, said the fact Tories didn't win one seat in any of Canada's three major cities -- Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal -- should concern the party.

"They have some huge holes to fill in the basis of their support if they ever want to form a more stable government than the one they have today," said Gregg.

Meanwhile, Green Party hopes of picking up a few seats were dashed. They did, however, pick up 4.5 per cent of the popular vote across the country -- comfortably passing the 2 per cent threshold needed to secure public funding.

With files from The Canadian Press

 

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