In Canada, the Conservatives beat the Liberals, sweeping the prairie and making modest gains in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces to form a minority government with 124 seats. Stephen Harper is the 22nd prime minister of Canada. Canadian policy will probably not change much; the basic Conservative platform this time was to take steps to eliminate corruption in Canadian government, to reduce taxes, and to crack down on crime. Canada will almost certainly pull out of Kyoto; Kyoto has a lot of support in Canada, but with typical Canadian inconsistency only vague and incomplete efforts were ever made to find ways for Canada to comply with it.
I think the major changes won't be for Canada but for the Conservatives; this is the first government for the party in its current form, which is only a bit more than two years old. It's a re-formation of the old Tories out of its two major fragments, the Progressive Conservatives and the Reform Party (later Canadian Alliance); the two conservatisms have tended to be very different, and have sometimes not liked each other at all. This government, I think, will be crucial for the Conservatives, to show their credibility as a governing party and their ability to act as a unified party.
