Conservative party wins minority government in Canada

January 24, 2006

Stephen Harper's Conservatives have won a minority government in Canada with most stations reporting at this time. The Conservatives' win ends 12 years of a Liberal government plagued by allegations of scandals in recent months.

Most major Canadian TV networks began to project a Conservative win at approx 3:30 a.m. UTC

Below are the current results for polls reporting, which are still subject to frequent change. Please note this includes both officially elected and leading candidates at this time.

This ends an unusually bitter campaign, with the Conservative and Liberals both launching harsh attack commercials against each other.

In response to the defeat, former prime minister Paul Martin has stepped down as leader of the Liberal party.

This early election stemmed from the ruling Liberal Party government's loss in a motion of no confidence. The Liberal government has faced strong opposition from the NDP, Conservatives and Bloc Québécois as a result of an embarrassing sponsorship scandal.

East
In Quebec, the Bloc Québécois won the great majority of seats, 51 with 42,7% of the votes, the Conservatives won 10 seats with 24,6% while the Liberals faced a wall by getting only 20,7% of the votes, which gave them 13 seats at the Parliament, down by eight from the last election. In Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier, the radio animator André Arthur was also elected as the only successful independent candidate in Canada.

BC
In the Vancouver Island North riding, incumbent John Duncan has been defeated by NDP member and now first time MP Catherine Bell. In the previous 2004 election Bell lost by a mere 483 votes to Duncan. This could be seen as quite an upset to Duncan, who has been in power in this riding for several years and was likely to be in Stephen Harper's cabinet as he was part of Harpers shadow cabinet during the Conservatives time as opposition. Bell won this election by just 1.11%.