Ralph Nader endorses Layton

Can't he just meddle in one election at a time.

I love that that story broke in Timmins.

Ralph Nader: Where the hell is Timmins?

Helpful N. Ontario person: Welp, from Trana, ya takes the Highway 11 straight nort. If ya hits Cochrane, ye've overshot 'er.

Sister left yesterday. Parents arrive tomorrow. Wish I could hire Molly Maid.

COMM-worthy, JSw!

I am both more nervous & more hopeful about the election now - nervous b/c of all the Conservatives shooting their mouths off about overriding the Supreme Court on every little thing, hopeful b/c it may be the last straw that convinces people yes, they really are that bad.

Megan, I hope your holidays are going well & that you didn't stress yourself too much over housecleaning.

Speaking of vacations, we'll be in Ontario for nearly three weeks in July/August and just discovered that our usual house/dog/cat-sitter is unavailable then. So now we have to find one friend to take the dog and another person to come in & feed the cat, or start researching the cost of kennels. Bleah.

Returns starting to come in from Newfoundland.

It's so weird, I'm not used to being able to hear this stuff.

One of the CBC analyists quoting his wife's (slightly tongue-in-cheek) analysis: Well, [spoilerfonted for the hell of it] the godless NDP never was very popular on the Rock.

Two liberals elected so far. Also, someone whose name I didn't catch is fighting off a challenger who's only 11 votes back. Small ridings can be nail-biters.

Quite an interesting result. (135 Liberals, 99 Conservatives, 54 Bloc Quebecquois, 19 NDP and 1 Independent)

So, how long until the next election?

Megan, this may have been explained in the previous posts about how results could shake out, but what do those results actually mean? It looks like the Liberals have the majority, but is it too small a majority to do anything or ?

The Liberals have a plurality, not a majority. t /pedant

The expectation is that they will try to form a majority with the NDP and/or the Bloc Quebecquois. However, nobody expects the coalition to last very long, hence Megan's crack about when the next election will be.

155 votes is a majority in the House. So while the Liberals will form the government, they will have to get the support one of the other parties, to get motions and bills passed. It will likely be the NDP, perhaps on some occassions, the Bloc Quebecois.

This is good for these minority parties because it means they have the bargaining power to push for their policies and initiatives. There was a minority Liberal gov't in 1972 that was very good for social programs.

It's bad because minority governments are always unstable. If a vote in the House of Commons is a declared a confidence vote, and the party that has formed the gov't loses, they resign, and the Governor General can call a new election or ask another party to form the Government.

There's some good info about Minority governments here.