Canadians woke up the morning after the May 2 federal election to a new, perhaps uncharted politi­cal landscape. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally led his party to a decisive victory, winning a majority mandate in his fourth campaign since he became party leader in 2004. To the surprise of many, Jack Layton’s NDP scaled new heights to become the country’s official Op­position. Meanwhile, the federal Liberals, who have re­garded themselves as the country’s natural govern­ing party, suffered a tre­mendous collapse. The Bloc Quebecois endured a worse fate after getting almost decimated in Que­bec. The future of these two parties is uncertain. 

The Green Party of Canada also made history. Party leader Elizabeth May became its first elected MP with her victory Saanich-Gulf Islands. May has pledged to transform politics as it is be­ing played in Ottawa.

Harper’s Conservatives got 39.7 percent of the popular vote. This effectively matched the average of for­mer Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien of 40.2 per­cent across three majority governments. For the first time in 80 years, English Canada elect­ed a Conservative majority on its own, a feat last accomplished by Richard Bennett’s Conservatives in 1930.

“We are grateful, deeply honoured — in fact, hum­bled — by the decisive endorsement of so many Canadians,” Harper de­clared in election nigh. The voter turnout of 61.4 percent was slightly better than the 58.8 per­cent that showed up to the 2008 election. However, it still trails the 64.7 percent that cast ballots in 2006. During the 1980’s, at least 75 percent of Canadians participate in elections.

With a majority govern­ment, Harper now has four solid years to pursue his party’s agenda without worrying about the oppo­sition bringing him down.
He has promised to be the Prime Minister for all Canadians, and some pundits predict that he would actually bring his party to the centre.

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