Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party has won a majority of seats in a historic election that saw the left-leaning New Democratic Party become the official opposition.
The Conservatives won 167 of the 308 electoral districts, earning 40 per cent of the vote, Elections Canada reported.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) claimed 102 seats, while the Liberals took 34.
Harper, who took office in 2006, has previously won two elections but never before held a majority government.
Canadians voted yesterday in the country’s fourth general election in seven years.
Harper went into the vote having headed two successive minority Conservative governments since 2006. His party held 143 seats in the House of Commons prior to the dissolution of the last government.
Analysts say the prime minister has slowly nudged the country further to the right during his five-year tenure.
He has lowered sales and corporate taxes, avoided signing climate change legislation and become a stark advocate of Arctic sovereignty.
He has also increased military spending and extended Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan.
“We are grateful, deeply honoured, in fact humbled by the decisive endorsement of so many Canadians,” Mr Harper told supporters on Monday in the city of Calgary in the country’s Alberta province. (BBC)
