Election night results

7:30pm: It’s gonna be a long night. Despite the TV networks’ rush to predict the result first, I doubt anyone will know anything certain for quite some time.

I will update the table above intermittently when candidates are declared elected, but I assume most people will be watching the coverage live. Instead, I’ll post some comments as I go along.

8:15pm: So far, the results for the Liberals aren’t looking nearly as grim as most of the media had been predicting.

They just announced that Scott Brison managed to win his riding – as a Liberal. Very interesting. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t view switching parties as a sign of being a “traitor”, but more as a sign of wanting to stay true to one’s ideals. Some people accused Brison of opportunism, but I think he just found that his values fit better with the Liberal party. Apparently, most voters in his riding agreed.

On the other hand, John Herron, who also switched from the Tories to the Libs, lost to the Conservative candidate in his riding. Win some, lose some.

8:50pm: Bad news for the Conservatives all over Eastern Canada, as they are down in seats and way down in popular vote. The Liberals have done what they needed to do in that part of the country, at any rate. There won’t be much more news until results start to come in from Quebec, Ontario, and Central Canada.

9:10pm: The first Bloc Quebecois MP has been elected, in Gaspésie/Îles-de-la-Madeleine. A sign of things to come in Quebec as a whole? Probably.

9:25pm: Local Conservative Party headquarters in Montreal are in a friggin’ Cage au Sports! That’s hysterical!!!

9:30pm: Polls are now closed in most of the country. Results should start to come in pretty quickly now.

9:45pm: Everyone’s talking about Layton versus Mills in the hotly-contested riding of Toronto-Danforth. But the big story that hasn’t been reported there is that the Conservative Party candidate, a guy with the odd-sounding name of Loftus Cuddy, is the brother of Blue Rodeo‘s lead singer Jim Cuddy. (Blue Rodeo’s concert on Saturday at Bourbon Street North was awesome, by the way).

10:05pm: CTV just predicted a Liberal win, though they’re not saying yet whether it will be a majority or a minority.

Remember folks, you heard it here first.

10:15pm: With only 2 out of 205 polls reporting, my riding of NDG-Lachine has been declared a win for incumbent Liberal Marlene Jennings. No surprises there. I knew when I voted for her that it wouldn’t be much of a race.

10:30pm: The media networks are all projecting a Liberal minority now. As happy as I am that the Liberals will be taking it, my relief is tempered by the fact that the NDP might get enough seats to combine with the Liberals for a majority, thus giving the NDP all kinds of undeserved power in government and swinging policies to the far left. I’m crossing my fingers that they’re wrong.

10:45pm: David Pratt, the Liberal minister of defence, was defeated in his riding. Some big-name Liberals are falling to the Tories, but it won’t be enough for Harper’s team to take the reins. The Liberals are still way ahead.

10:50pm: At the moment, using elected and leading totals, it’s looking like Liberals + NDP will combine for enough seats for a majority. Goddammit! This is bad, bad news for Canada.

11:00pm: L. Ian MacDonald is talking about a “Lib-Lab” coalition, and Jack Layton dusting off his shopping list. With the NDP holding the balance of power, this is probably one of the worst-case scenarios that could have emerged. The Liberals had a golden opportunity to move rightward, towards the middle, under Paul Martin. Instead, thanks to the Bloc sweep in Quebec, the party will be forced to move leftward.

11:15pm: It’s all over now but the fat lady singing.

Gilles Duceppe just gave his triumphant victory speech after his sweep in Quebec, and – surprise surprise – is suddenly talking about sovereignty again nonstop (after swearing that this vote was not about separation). I don’t know why this stuff even bothers me anymore, it’s so expected. Still, this is bad news for Quebec.

In the rest of the country, it’s pretty much understood that Paul Martin will govern with Jack Layton’s help. The NDP agenda will be front-and-center, and we can kiss Martin’s fiscally-responsible policies, like debt reduction, goodbye.

The good news is the Liberals won. The bad news is, well, everything else. Unfortunately, I predicted this.