Well, the CBC is calling it a minority Conservative government.

First the bad:

• There’s a cultural analogue to the electoral “first past the post” deal. In the same way that a political party can gain 51% popular support (or even less, in a more-than-two-party-system) but still take 100% of the seats, the civic culture of a country can be a winner-take-all proposition. The US has proven this in spades for 5 years. The Republican party has never had much more than 50% support, and indeed sometimes less. And yet right wing politics and attitudes have dominated political and civic America to an enormous extent. Likewise, there is a potential for Canada to enter now into a Conservative phase, which would certainly not be to my tastes. I love my small l small p liberal progressive Canada, and would only want more of it. I’ll surely miss what we had.
• The old Reform wing of the Conservative party has been very quiet throughout this election, and their socially conservative policies have stayed way under the radar. The consensus is that that’s because they have seen the possibility of real power for the first time in many years and were willing to stay quiet until election. Now that they have some of that power, there is a possibility that a shadow agenda will emerge from the centrist, fiscally conservative Conservative platform that has been advertised throughout the election.
• A much larger than previous proportion of MPs will be coming from “the west” e.g. Alberta. More importanly, cabinet members likewise. I don’t like Albertan politics, and I don’t like Albertan politicians. More so than just “conservatives”. There is such a thing as a socially responsible, community minded conservative. There’s such a thing as a socially responsible, community minded Albertan. I’ve met them. But they don’t get elected to politics.

Now the good:

• The Liberals largely lost because of corruption scandal. Corruption is an anathema to democracy, you simply can’t have a good democracy coexisting with corruption. It’s insidious and once it gets in it’s hard to get out. That Canadians are generally angry about corruption and willing to vote on that issue is a really good thing.
• Paul Martin is out. I never liked him.
• It’s a minority government. Which means that there will be another election in a couple of years. Which means that the Conservative government, which will be under intense scrutiny in their first stab at power in 13 years will be very much on their best behaviour. If they’re smart they actually won’t let the socially conservative ex-Reformers take the bit. They’ll make them sit as quietly as they have been through the election, they’ll be looking at this as a chance to prove themselves before they consolidate a majority government the next time around. So don’t count on too many crazy social policies.
• The Conservatives ran an indeal campaign. My view was limited by not having a TV, but as far as I could tell the Conservatives ran a positive, policy-centric ideas based programme. They answered questions with ideas, they put forward their own ideas, they behaved like a political party should in a real democracy. Next to punishing the Liberals for entitilement and corruption, that’s seems to be why Canada elected them. There’s something to be said for the fact that we choose to elect people when they behave that way.

So I’m scared about what comes from this. But I’m not entirely scared about what it says about Canadians.