The Tories have it. So sad. But it could have been worse. The Tories have been given an even less powerful mandate than the Liberals before them - 124 seats as opposed to the 133 the Liberals had going into the election. This heartens me somewhat as there is not a whole lot of damage that they can wreak upon the country in this position.

That being said, a Conservative government makes me feel all icky inside. Of course, there was a time when I would have said the opposite. A couple of years ago, Kirsten and I were watching the PC leadership convention. I was rooting for a virtual unknown at the time, who seemed reasonable, intelligent and savvy. He stepped down from the race to let his friend Peter McKay lead the party under the condition that the party not be merged with the Alliance. Of course, within days of McKay taking leadership of the party, he merged it with Stephen Harper's Alliance party. Disgusted with the dishonesty of his friend, Brison moved over to the Liberal party of Canada.

I was worried then, because I didn't want the PC party to crumble under the weight of the bigotry, social conservatism, and outright fearmongering of the Alliance party. And then another virtual unknown stepped up to lead the newly formed Conservative party. Again there was a well-spoken moderate reaching for the leadership, and again she was denied. Though she tried to work within the new party, the Alliance influences eventually drove her to the Liberals.

Last night, Paul Martin stepped down as leader of the LIberal party. This wasn't the least bit unexpected; Martin inherited a bad deal from Chretien with Gomery, and really couldn't be expected to remain leader following a defeat, however small it was. So now we have a chance for a center-line candidate leading the Liberal party. Is this a good thing? I suppose it depends on where the candidate fell on certain issues. Scott Brison and Belinda Stronach are both socially progressive, having supported same-sex marriage, among other things, and seem moderate on other issues, such as healthcare and finances. It will be a very interesting race, that's for certain (of course, whether the core Liberal posse will accept either a woman or an openly gay man as leader is yet to be seen). A Liberal party with either one as leader may win my vote next time around if they field a halfway decent candidate (Sorry Andy - you are, no doubts, a nice guy, but you're no politician).

In other news, I'm really proud of the NDP for increasing their number of seats to 29 in this Parliament. Jack Layton is really moving the party up the food chain, and I'm looking forward to seeing their showing next time 'round.