OPINION: Will new Harper government pay more attention to Ontario?

Author: John Devine

Date: Oct 14, 2008

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John speculates on what a Harper victory means for Simcoe County and Canada

Well, here it is less than two hours after the polls closed and the Tories are heading back to Ottawa to form the government.

Say hello to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the sequel. In a good news/bad news story for the PM, Harper is headed back to the big office in Ottawa. That’s the good news. The bad is that it’s not the majority he so clearly wanted.

The night started bad for the Liberals and got worse. Votes in Western Canada had yet to be counted 20 minutes in and the Grits were losing to the Conservatives as the vote swung out of Ontario into the west.

Locally, results mirrored the trend across the country, with the Tories holding and solidifying and the Grits sliding. Across the province, early results showed the NDP and the Greens holding their support at the expense of the Liberals.

The four Simcoe County ridings stayed Tory, which was expected.

We are witnessing a split in the left-leaning vote similar to the right-wing split that kept conservatives out of office during the Chrétien years, as the old Progressive Conservatives battled with Reformers and then the Alliance.

In all likelihood, following the election, there’ll be a soul searching as, to use Stéphane Dion’s term, ‘progressives’ look for what unites them rather than what divides them.

It’s unlikely the NDP will be open to any ‘unity’ chatter, especially as they look to be better off by the time the counting has ended, than when it started. However, there is a natural alliance in the making with the Liberals and the Greens. How that shapes up remains to be seen.

As this is being written, the Conservatives were proclaimed the next government. Ontario turned out to be the main battleground. If in fact the province is key in delivering the Tories a strong minority, perhaps Ontario will have a stronger voice in the government to get its concerns addressed, issues so neatly summed up in Premier Dalton McGuinty’s ‘fairness for Ontario’ campaign.

Harper turned his gaze to Ontario near the end of the campaign when it became apparent he wasn’t going to make the expected breakthrough in Quebec. Perhaps with an Ontario surge responsible for delivering him the keys of the kingdom, he'll look more kindly on Ontario.

So, it’s a Conservative minority government, thanks to unexpected support from Ontario.