Canadian Liberal Party handed minority government

Canada's ruling Liberal Party leader Paul Martin was handed a minority government in a surprising election outcome Tuesday that marked the party's fourth-straight mandate but returned it to the House of Commons with diminished clout.

Liberal candidates won 135 of the country's 308 ridings after Monday's vote, a drop of 33 from the 168 they held when Prime Minister Paul Martin, 65, called the election five weeks ago. The Liberal victory was largely achieved in seat-rich Ontario Province.

The Liberals fared better than pre-election polls indicated, with about 37 percent of the popular vote, according to Elections Canada. Surveys by EKOS Research and Ipsos-Reid company heading into the final weekend of campaigning put the party's support at about 32 percent.

The major opposition party, the Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper, obtained 99 seats, an increase of 26 seats from the 73 held before the election. The Bloc Quebecois led by Gilles Duceppe, which advocates French-speaking Quebec's separation from Canada won 54 of the province's 75 seats.

The New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Jack Layton, which insists the government should slow debt reduction to fund programs to benefit the poor and the environment, took 19 seats.

All the party leaders were elected in their own ridings, Martin and Duceppe in Montreal, Harper in Calgary and Layton in Toronto. Under Canada's Parliamentary system, the leader of the governing party automatically becomes prime minister.

The seat totals were nowhere near the huge victory that Martin had been predicted to win when he took over as prime minister last December, or even the small majority the party was expected to receive when the election was called five weeks ago.

Canada will have its first minority government since Joe Clark's Conservative government which lasted for six months in 1979. The electorate decided Martin deserved to lead the country but gave the Liberals the message that they must do better.

Source: Xinhua