Canada: Govt: Harper denied majority, result of Lib pro-abort demote-marriage fearmongering

These are the standings reported by the nonpartisan independent TV channel CPAC, for which Nik Nanos of SES has been the pollster thru-out the election. The results seem to be official to date, however, a number of close votes will probably be subjected to recounts - so the tallies may vary.

My main concern about the results are that they land a herculean task on the shoulders of the new Prime Minister, Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party. The Conservatives now have a smaller minority than had the previous Liberals of Paul Martin; the Conservs must govern within the titest constrictions imaginable - and, to boot, face a hostile Senate largely appointed by the Libs from ages past, face a glum and surly Lib-apppointed Supreme Court intent on expanding riggedhts, always hungry to stuff the text of the Charter with meanings not there, and a media that is anxiously sharpening its knives at the moment to saint-sebastianize Harper with a thousand small wounds.

I'm happy the New Democrats got their due in seats. In my riding, there was absolutely no sign of the Tory candidate on the ground. We got no visit on my street, where the only signs were NDP, and we got no Tory info in the mailbox.

I'm happy the number of seats for the Bloc Quebecois was decreased a bit; delited there were Conservatives elected in Quebec.

I was disappointed there was not a single seat won by the Green Party - as they do represent a significant if small proportion of the electorate, focused as they are on the environment.

One Independent was elected somewhere or other. A good sign.

The two-party Pro-Life Caucus in Parliament, both Conservs and Libs, saw a number of their participants re-elected, but Harper has committed himself to zero-legislation, apparently on any aspect of abortion, so the new practices of hacking near-term babies apart in the womb will not be stopped by law, nor will the practice of leaving live newborns on the abortuary table to die. Apparently, the Canadian public has so absolutized the Court-decreed "right" to abortion, that that no salutary constraints on its practice can ever be instituted. Harper has said he will not block an effort to speak on behalf of the near-born or unwanted-born, but it will be up to Cheryl Gallant and her colleagues to find a way to raise the issue in the form of a Private Members' Bill. On that, I am also skeptical because it's difficult for solid Pro-Lifers to go for what they may consider "half-way measures" instead of the whole load.

I doubt that the demotion of marriage to the generic arrangement I call "gmarriage" (since "Same-Sex" is an inance abstract term that doesn't even inform us that three distinct and different forms of intimate union are being contemplated, only one of which is marriage, that between 1woman1man) will be rescinded. I just don't see any movement in this sitting of the House of Commons, and if it does pass that House, such legislation would then have to pass the appointees who compose the so-called Senate.

Well, the Libs are out of power for a season. Martin is out, Pettigrew is out, McClellan is out (maybe, recount in order), etc. Still the Libs won the big cities, along with some incursions by the NDP.

Harper is upbeat. If anyone can handle the circumstances into which he has been dumped, it's him. He's neither a rabble-rouser nor a sentimentalist. - Owlb