This was lifted almost verbatim from an e-mail that I sent to Katie and her sister ….
Well, I’ll see what sort of craziness the Tories get up to before I make a final decision about making a run for the border (yes, I’m showing my age by referencing a years-old ad campaign). Right now, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I think that, given the small size of the minority, they won’t be able to do anything too ‘nutty’. Besides, I imagine that there’ll be another election in about 18-24 months anyway.
Belinda Stronach kept her seat. This kind of surprised me, because she’s in an area that has traditionally gone Tory (she was initially elected as a Tory, but then crossed the floor about a year ago). The one result that did surprise me was Anne McLellan losing her seat. But then again, she is from Alberta, and they went completely Tory this time.
Even more surprising than all of that, though, was Paul Martin announcing that he’s going to be stepping down as leader of the Liberal party. I think it’s a good thing, because as great a Finance Minister as he was, he never seemed comfortable as PM. I honestly don’t know who could possibly step up and lead the ‘divided’ (to use what is perhaps too strong a word) Liberals right now. It’ll be interesting to watch.
I watched Jack Layton’s speech last night, and he (and Ms. Chow) were positively beaming. He’s got to be thrilled with the number of seats they won. They haven’t done this well since 1993 (I think, maybe it was even earlier). I’m happy for the NDP. I don’t think I’d want to see them running the show, but I think that if they can swing some sort of a deal with the Tories (much like they did with the Liberals after the last election) they can be a moderating force.