Canadian conservatives win election victory

Conservative leader Stephen Harper won a victory today in Canada’s election, ending 13 years of Liberal rule, pushing the country rightward on social and economic issues and bolstering ties with the US.

The official results gave the Conservatives a strong lead with most votes counted – but it appeared likely the margin would be too small to rule outright, forcing the party to form a minority government and making it difficult to get legislation through a divided House of Commons.

Harper is expected to give his victory speech later this morning from his Calgary constituency after all the results are announced.

“We know that there is an undeniable and unstoppable sentiment for change in the country,” deputy Conservative leader Peter MacKay told supporters. “A change towards a new, clean, constructive attitude that will exist within a Conservative government.”

Liberal prime minister Paul Martin conceded defeat and said he would step down as head of the party, although he will remain in parliament to represent the Montreal seat he won again.

“I have just called Stephen Harper and I’ve offered him my congratulations,” he told a subdued crowd at his headquarters in Montreal. “We differ on many things, but we all share a believe in the potential and the progress of Canada.”

Relations with the Bush administration would probably improve under a Harper government, as his ideology runs along the same lines of many US Republicans.

Harper has said he would reconsider a US missile defence scheme rejected by the current Liberal government of prime minister Paul Martin. He also said he wanted to move beyond the Kyoto debate by establishing different environmental controls, spend more on the Canadian military, expand its peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan and Haiti and tighten security along the border with the US in an effort to prevent terrorists and guns from crossing the frontier.

The country’s major media outlets called the election for the Conservatives shortly after polls closed nationwide. According to official results, Conservatives either had won or were leading in races for 122 seats; the Liberals had either won or were leading in races for 103 seats; the separatist Bloc Quebecois appeared to have 50 seats and the New Democratic Party was poised to gain 31 seats.

A Conservative victory ends nearly 13 years of Liberal Party rule and shifts the traditionally liberal country to the right on socio-economic issues such as health care, taxation, abortion and gay marriage.

Many Canadians had grown weary of the broken promises and corruption scandals under the Liberal Party and were apparently willing to give Harper the benefit of doubt, despite fears the 46-year-old economist was too extreme in his views opposing abortion and gay marriage.

During the campaign, Harper pledged to cut the red tape in social welfare programmes, lower the national sales tax from 7% to 5% and grant more autonomy and federal funding to Canada’s 13 provinces and territories.

The Liberals have angered Washington in recent years, condemning the war in Iraq, refusing to join the continental anti-ballistic missile plan and criticising President George Bush for rejecting the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions and enacting punitive Canadian lumber tariffs.

Martin, 67, had trumpeted eight consecutive budget surpluses and sought to paint Harper as a right-winger posing as a moderate to woo mainstream voters. The prime minister had also promised to lower income taxes, implement a national child care programme and ban handguns.

He claimed Harper supported the war in Iraq, which most Canadians opposed, and would try to outlaw abortion and overturn gay marriage.

Harper denied those claims and said Martin had failed to swing voters against him.

“Canadians can disagree, but it takes a lot to get Canadians to intensely hate something or hate somebody. And it usually involves hockey,” Harper quipped.

Voters cast ballots at 60,000 polling stations amid unseasonably mild winter weather. Turnout from the country’s 22.7 million registered voters was expected to be better than the 60% of the June 2004 election, the lowest number since 1898.