The Liberals held solid leads in elections for 172 seats in the 301-seat
parliament, the prime minister's biggest victory since he was first elected
in 1993.
"Welcome to the 21st century," Chretien said in a victory speech, echoing
former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's "Welcome to the 1980s" two decades
ago. He said the size of his victory came as a surprise to him.
With three straight majority governments, Chretien was now seen to be
historically just a step behind Sir Wilfred Laurier, who won four straight
majorities at the turn of the century.
By no coincidence, Laurier was Chretien's role model, but the prime
minister was seen unlikely to try for a fourth term.
The Liberals retained their stranglehold in Ontario, winning 100 of the
103 seats in the province, compared to 101 in the outgoing House.
Right-wing leader Stockwell Day of the Canadian Alliance was heading for
67 seats, or nine more than he held in the last Parliament, but made few
gains in Ontario, where he had hoped to make headway.
A big surprise came with the losses suffered by the Bloc Quebecois, which
lost several significant constituencies to the Liberals in Quebec, and was
winning 37 seats in parliament, down from 44 in the last legislature.
The left-wing New Democratic Party's performance was another surprise. It
won 13 seats, keeping its party status in Parliament, for which a minimum of
12 seats are required.
NDP leader Alexa McDonough, who admitted she had feared losing party
status, was clearly pleased, though her strength in the Parliament was
reduced by six seats.
Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark, whose own seat in Alberta had
been in doubt, ended with 12 seats in Parliament, including his own, and was
also pleased he had retained his party status in the House.
Clark has been fighting off attempts by the Canadian Alliance to absorb
his party in a "unite the right" campaign, and commentators said that if he
had lost party status in Parliament, the battle may have been lost.
Alliance deputy leader Deborah Grey attributed the Liberals' big win in
Ontario to the fact that the right-wing vote was divided between her party
and the Conservatives, "allowing the Liberals to come up the middle" to take
the province.
However, she said Day had done remarkably well in the election,
considering that he had been party leader for only 103 days.
Commentators pointed out that Day has never lost an election before in his
home province of Alberta, and this election gave him his first taste of
defeat.
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