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And polls closed in the Maritimes. This is where things get interesting. Newfoundland was expected to be a near-sweep, at least, for the Grits. Time to see how it goes elsewhere.

The liberal sweep through the Maritimes isn't that surprising considering local sentiment. Once Ontario and Quebec start reporting will tell the real story.

Yep. Though to hear the CBC heads talk, this is better for the Grits in the Maritimes than was expected.

Edit: Cripes. They're leading or elected in *every riding* in Atlantic Canada right now.

To potentially take out people like Jack Harris and Peter Stauffer, and to lead in Central Nova (Peter McKay's riding), that is way better.

The CBC is currently reporting the Liberals as elected or leading in 31 of 32 ridings in Atlantic Canada.

the one non-liberal riding is Tobique-Mactaquac, which has been flipping between the liberals and the conservatives the entire time.

Darrel Samson has defeated Peter Stoffer in Sackvillw-Preston-West Chezzetcook.

As a Nova Scotian, WOW.

My favourite Twitter comment so far: "the Greens are tied for the opposition right now!"

Quebec through Alberta about to close their polls and report. This is the big show...

CBC called it. Liberal victory.

CBC has called it, liberals will form government.

I would never have expected this much of a liberal swing.

Me, either. I was calling for a Tory minority followed by a Liberal/NDP governing accord. Looks like I was wrong. I underestimated the left's ability to avoid vote-splitting. Surprised as heck.

My riding has gone red. I think we only went red because we have Bill Blair running. He's a huge name after all.



Or at least it looks red, still have more polls to count.

Liberal Majority.

SAJewers wrote:Liberal Majority.

*predicted Majority by the CBC

There it is. Liberal majority.

So... was it the niqab that got us here? The issue crippled the NDP in Quebec, and the slide in polls convinced voters (especially in Ontario) that the viable "change" party was the Liberals, not the NDP?

Was it that the Grits tacked left and the Dippers tacked right, and people wanted the lefty option?

Or was it a combination of the two?

Honestly... if Mr. Mulcair lost because he stood on principle and refused to acquiesce to a bigoted policy... that's a sad thing. Noble as hell of him, but sad for the electorate.

I'm still watching my riding with gritted (heh) teeth. I thought only the NDP had a chance of beating the Tories here, but currently they're in third - with the Liberals leading the polls by one vote. Yikes.

Classy concession speech from Mr. Mulcair just now. I feel for the guy.

Also for local Ottawa NDP incumbent Paul Dewar. He's a solid MP who lost tonight.

CBC projecting M. Duceppe was not elected in his riding.

Mr. Harper giving concession speech now.

Edit: He will not seek to form government.

Edit 2: A statement was released at the same time announcing Mr. Harper is not staying on as CPC leader.

So, this was my first election in Canada, and I haven't been here that long, but I've had a decent number of political discussions with locals so far.

To start off, well done Canada! You have finally 'stopped' Harper. As far as I'm concerned, that means I pretty much have to be happy with the result. The level of hostility towards him here in not-really-very-urban PEI was pretty huge, at least from my leftist viewpoint.

On the other hand, and this is a view I've seen expressed everywhere, it seems such a shame both that many wonderful local NDP MPs have lost their seats to this cause, and that the party is back in the third party position.

Now leftists like me (preferably ones who are actually Canadian citizens/permanent residents) will have to keep the Liberals to the progressive policy promises they have made, and challenge them to go beyond that. I'm not sure that is remotely possible, but I hope it is.

Mr. Trudeau now making victory speech.

Edit: Rousing, actually. Energetic. Positive. Conciliatory. Generous. Amazing what winning can do for a politician's oratory. Heck of a speech.

My guess is the niqab issue was enough to flip a few of the marginal rural ridings around Quebec City to the Conservatives, and maybe one or two ridings to the Bloc.

It probably caused a small dip in NDP support, and that probably drove lots of people to vote Liberal on an Anything But Harper rationale (and because, let's be honest, an awful lot of Quebec voters were looking for an excuse to vote Liberal.)

But the voting totals show pretty well that 1-the Conservatives are still far from being a serious option in Quebec and 2-the nationalist vote is still dying at roughly 1%/year.

Also, Trudeau's speech was excellent - definitely worth the long wait.