Surprise! Conservative minority!

Harper hoped for a majority government, but unfortunately, him and his PR team couldn’t achieve it.

They went from hoping to double their seats in Quebec, to hoping to hold on to the seats they had. Justin Trudeau won his hard-fought seat in Papineau for the Liberals. It’s important that he wasn’t parachuted in to an easy riding. Justin has been working towards this far before this election began. He has shown not only that he is charismatic Canadian royalty, but also that he cares about the people. His win in Papineau will help earn him some respect rather than just being Trudeau Jr.

Conservatives won seats in Toronto, which is a pretty big deal. In this heavily multicultural area, they campaigned well. The seats the Liberals and NDP thought were safe ended up not being so safe at all.

On that note, Linda Duncan’s win in Edmonton-Strathcona takes Alberta from being all blue to blue with a tiny speck of orange. With so many Alberta candidates being unseen in their constituencies during the election, opting instead to fly across the country and help other candidates, it sends an important message that Alberta is not as safe as the Conservatives thought.

The NDP did well, and though Elizabeth May lost her seat in Central Nova to the hunky Peter McKay (surprise!) the Greens also did considerably well.

With the political gaffes and scandal from all parties, the PR stronghold over Harper, messaging, and the bright idea to release his platform a week before the election, it’s not much of a surprise that voter turnout was dismal. Though, personally, I think Canadians should be ashamed. I just hope Mr. Harper doesn’t think people stayed home because they were complacent. In an election where polls got increasingly close towards the end of the campaign, my guess is that most Canadians just didn’t want any of the leaders to win.

What a way to spend $300 million.