I just check the Globe and Mail live results. I'll avoid the inside baseball stuff--most readers don't know who the players are, so this will be box scores only.

I talked to an associate tonight who was on his way to vote--he usually votes Liberal, but voted for the Green Party tonight, largely because he didn't know what else to do. I think this has been rather typical--votes against the Liberals and only incidentally for other parties.

The Communists, I mean New Democrats (NDP) have done extremely well, increasing their seats by a third over the last election cycle. Those undoubtedly came at Liberal expense as the Conservative drew away the moderates and the NDP siphoned off the far left. Still, the Liberals have done much better than early projections lead us to believe. Numbers like 75 seats were being bantered around just this weekend, but they will hold on to slightly over 100.

Had they captured just a few more seats, they might have had a chance at yet another minority government.

The Conservatives will have an interesting propostion in forming a government. The NDP is socialist while the Bloc is nominally a separatist party. I predict they'll go with the Bloc as the less objectionable partner.

Not surprisingly, at least to me, nothing has fundamentally changed in the Canadian dynamic. The Liberals got only 8 seats in the four western provinces, defining the regional character of Canadian politics with the west v. Ontario v. Quebec.

Unless Stephen Harper is more clever than he's demonstrated in the past, we can expect another election within 24 months and more musical chairs.

The Captain is liveblogging the affair. Good luck with that.

Mark Steyn is also liveblogging the election. Sucker for punishment, eh?

Angry in the Great White North Winners and Losers--reflects my own views. Throws me some candy by letting me know that gay kleptomaniac Sven Robinson lost.

Martin resigns, Steyn Comments:

Given the campaign, that was a reasonably graceful Martin concession speech. But the dismal ugly desperation of the last couple of months will go down as his real swan song. This is a man who set out to reach the top of the greasy pole at all odds, only to find he had no idea of what he wanted to do when he got there. And the price of winning the big prize was a fractured party whose lean mean efficiency dissipated day by day. Ruthlessness is all very well but inept ruthlessness has little to commend it.

This guy could be next

The Wurdick Blog brings us Harper's victory speech and its excellent and instructive

Throughout this campaign, we were crystal clear about where we will lead.

Clearly Harper intends to govern as if he as a mandate, and the reason he gives above gives him some reason to do so, however a minority government is always constrain in pursuing its goals.

First and foremost, we will clean up Ottawa by proposing and passing the Federal Accountability Act. We will do this because shuffling the deck in Ottawa is not enough. We need to change the system. And we will change the system to strengthen our institutions and make them more accountable to you, the Canadian taxpayers. We will reduce your tax burden, starting by cutting the GST from seven to six percent immediately and to five percent over our mandate. We will reform our justice system to make it stronger and to ensure that we turn back the growing plague of guns, gangs, and drugs in our cities and communities. We will offer parents choice and results in child care. And we will work with our provinces to give Canadians the health care they’ve paid for by developing a patient wait times guarantee.

This is equivilent to "guns AND butter". I have my doubts that Harper can both lower taxes (that would be great) and buck up Canada's extensive net of social programs.

Perhaps most importantly, we will begin the task of re-building federalism in the province of Quebec. I am especially proud of the fact that both Anglophones and Francophones worked together to bring about real change in Quebec. Our government will build a new and dynamic voice for federalism in Quebec.

This is either an equivocation or just total B.S. Federalism in its clinical sense, is what they already have--a weak federal government and strong provincial government in Quebec. Of course most people understand federalism to be the opposition of its definition--strong central government, weak regional governments. If Canadians are expecting a U.S. style of "federal" government, Harper is in no position to provide it, much less promise it.

To the people of the West, let me say one thing and let me be clear: the West is now in. Canada will work for all of us. To people in Atlantic Canada – the very different provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia We know that made-in-Ottawa solutions are not the answer. We will work to give you more control over your resources because I know that for my ancestral home the best is yet to come. To the people of the North – including the Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories – I say we see your potential and we look forward to helping you achieve your dreams.

While always charting a path in the best interests of Canada, we will seek to work cooperatively with our friends and allies, and constructively with all nations of the world. Tonight, although Canadians have voted for change, they have not given any one party a majority in the House of Commons. They have asked us to cooperate, to work together, and to get on with tackling the real issues that matter to ordinary working people and their families. I look forward to working with all of the parties and all members of parliament to build consensus and move Canada forward...

Code for we are planning to mitigate the hostile environment the Liberals created vis-a-vis the Americans....