Party - Seats Liberals – 173 Canadian Alliance – 66 Bloc Quebecois – 37 NDP – 13 Progressive Conservative Party - 12
The public has voted, the ballots have all been counted (in contrast to the United States), and the verdict is in: Canadians have elected a third straight Liberal majority government. For all the criticism of sending the public to the polls a mere three-and-a-half years into his mandate, Jean Chretien showed real political savvy when it came to choosing the timing for Canada's thirty-seventh federal election.
Other than the Liberal majority, there were few surprises. A Canadian Alliance breakthrough in Ontario did not happen, but that was predictable from polls taken throughout the campaign. Day’s lack of experience was a factor, but several gaffes from other party members didn’t help. They only served to reinforce fears that the Alliance has a hidden agenda that includes a referendum on abortion and immigration limits. Possibly the most damaging faux pas came when an Alliance MP told a university class that Asian immigrants were responsible for everything from Vancouver’s high cost of housing to increased competition to get into university. (To be fair, the member claimed she was taken out of context, and has never been given access to the tape so that she could justify her statements. Also, to the best of my knowledge the tape has never been played in a public forum, which would allow people to judge for themselves whether or not her comments were racist). The member in question was booted out of the party, but the damage was done.
Although the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP tried to put the results in as positive a light as possible, both must be disappointed with their poor showing. While leader Alexa McDonough won her Halifax seat, and Dartmouth MP Wendy Lill successfully fended off a challenge by former Senator turned Liberal cabinet minister Bernie Boudreau, the party dropped from nineteen seats (in 1997) to thirteen. As for the Tories, while Joe Clark’s defeat over Alliance MP Eric Lowther was hailed as a major victory, the party won only twelve seats – barely enough to cling to official party status. Furthermore, Clark’s win was largely orchestrated by local Liberal and NDP supporters in a sort of “anyone-but-Lowther” movement.
The one real surprise was Quebec where, despite a strong showing by leader Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc Quebecois managed to win only thirty-seven seats. Given Duceppe’s impressive performance during the campaign – I wanted to vote for him myself after watching the televised leadership debate – the party’s drop from fourty-four seats to thirty-seven was a bit of a surprise. However, the blame may lie with the previous BQ leader, Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard. Bouchard enacted a number of unpopular policies during the campaign, leading many Quebecers to park their vote with the Liberals in protest. Why he did so is open to debate, although there’s some thought he feared that a strong showing by the BQ would spur calls for another sovereignty referendum, which Bouchard knows is probably unwinnable at this point.
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