ABC News/AP: Conservatives Win in Canadian Election. Subhead: Conservatives Win Canadian Election and Vow to Move Quickly on Tax Cuts, Better Ties With U.S.
OTTAWA Jan 24, 2006 — Conservative Stephen Harper pledged to quickly carry out his campaign promises to cut taxes, get tough on crime and repair strained ties with Washington after his party won national elections and ended 13 years of Liberal Party rule in Canada.
That may be easier said than done.
The Conservatives' winning margin was too narrow to rule with a majority, a situation that will make it hard for them to get legislation through the divided House of Commons.
Monday's vote showed that Canadians are weary of the Liberal Party's broken promises and corruption scandals. They were willing to give Harper a chance to govern despite concerns that some of his social views are extreme.
"Tonight friends, our great country has voted for change, and Canadians have asked our party to take the lead in delivering that change," Harper told 2,000 cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters in Calgary....
International Herald Tribune: Conservative Party ousts Liberals in Canada
TORONTO Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party defeated the long-entrenched Liberal Party in Canadian elections, according to results announced Monday. A Conservative victory is a striking turn in the country's politics and is likely to improve Canada's strained relations with the Bush administration.
Prime Minister Paul Martin had hoped to build on a string of four consecutive Liberal national election victories in the past 13 years, but his campaign was damaged by two years of investigations into party scandals that spurred a backlash and a desire for change.
Martin tried to cut into Harper's lead in the final days with a campaign of rancorous advertising as opinion polls indicated that many urban voters were wary of allowing the country to veer into uncharted ideological waters.
But in the end, Harper seemed to reassure the public that he had evolved into a centrist and that his government would emphasize cutting taxes and cleaning up corruption rather than social issues like abortion and gay rights.
In a concession speech, Martin announced that he would leave the party leadership before the next national election. "I telephoned Stephen Harper and congratulated him on being chosen by the people of Canada," he said. "We differ on many things, but we all share the belief of the potential and the promise of Canada and the desire of our country to succeed."...
Bloomberg: Harper Leads Canada's Conservative Party to Election Victory
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Stephen Harper led Canada's Conservatives to their first national election win in 18 years, seizing on voter anger with the ruling Liberal Party. Paul Martin stepped down as Liberal leader after conceding defeat.
The Conservative Party won 125 seats in the House of Commons, compared with 103 seats for the Liberals, according to preliminary results from Elections Canada today.
Harper fell short of the 155 seats needed for a majority government, forcing him to seek support from opposition parties to deliver on plans to cut taxes, slow government spending and scrap a national day-care program.
``The way the seats are lining up this is the nightmare scenario'' for Harper, said Peter McCormick, a political science professor at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. ``I don't know how much they can get done.''
The Canadian dollar, trading close to a 14-year high, may decline on concern the new government may need to boost spending to win opposition support, threatening to narrow the country's budget surplus.
The dollar weakened to 86.78 U.S. cents at 12:57 a.m. trading, from 86.99 cents yesterday. The dollar and Canadian stocks rose yesterday on optimism Harper may win a majority government.
``The honeymoon is over before he really starts,'' said Stephen Clarkson, a professor at the University of Toronto. ``He won't have a great glow of triumph, because people were expecting him to get at least 140 seats.''...
Reuters: Canada's new right-wing leader faces uphill fight
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The winner of Canada's election began tackling the challenge on Tuesday of pushing his Conservative Party agenda of tax cuts and more defence spending through a Parliament he does not control.
Stephen Harper, a 46-year-old economist who will be the country's first right-wing prime minister in 12 years, won 124 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons in Monday's election, relegating the scandal-plagued Liberals to opposition benches.
Harper, who also wants to calm fractious ties with Washington, has nowhere near the 155 seats needed to form a majority in Parliament, where his party has no natural allies.
He will grapple with the same problems as the man he ousted, 67-year-old Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, who also led a minority government and was forced from office with 133 seats after 17 months on the job.
The vote was as much a protest against a tired Liberal government as it was a vote for Harper, whose opponents accuse him of wanting to impose a far-right social agenda on Canada.
"Canadians did not endorse neoconservatism when they elected him," the Globe and Mail said. "They voted against a Liberal Party that had become smug and arrogant."
Harper, the first prime minister from the oil-rich western province of Alberta in 25 years, returned to Ottawa on Tuesday. He will meet Martin soon to decide when power should formally change hands -- a date Conservative officials said was likely to be in two or three weeks' time.
Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than 18 months and the gossamer-thin nature of Harper's administration means there is little chance he will bow to demands from some in his party to clamp down on sensitive social issues such as gay marriage and abortion...
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