WELL Below 40%!

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin, the former head of the Liberal party, has conceded defeat to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Stephen Harper will be, it seems (once all the final ballots are counted), the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada.

Personally, I am burned that Harper won, but, considering how we thought this might play out, a Conservative minority government isn’t the worst thing that could have happened. The Conservatives seem to have captured only 36% of the vote, trailed by the Liberals at 30%, and the NDP at a whopping 17% (not bad for the “new” third option).

So, what this means is that the Conservatives will likely have something like 124 seats. (They needed around 155 seats to have a majority Parliament.) The Liberals will likely hold 103. The NDP will hold around 29, and the Bloc will grab around 50. Surprisingly, one lone independent has scooped a seat out of the midst of all this partisan warfare.

Thus, the Conservatives may have won, and it is clear that we will not be immediately going into a new election (the Liberals can’t afford it, the Conservatives don’t want it, and the polls say that Canadians want at least two years before another vote), but the Blue Menace will be held securely in check.

If they so much as break wind in a way that displeases, the combined 130 Leftist seats, perhaps with a little support from the socially progressive Bloc, will hold them accountable.

This is Jack’s time to shine. The Liberals will re-group in the wake of Paul Martin’s resignation as Liberal leader, and the NDP will continue to fight for the Leftist values so important to so many of us. We can all concentrate on watching the Conservatives very closely, and we can all hope that Canadians will see Harper for what he is before the next election.