A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

As expected, the Conservatives in Canada will be in charge of the next government. But their margin was smaller than expected:

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, Canada's next prime minister, pledged to work with all parties in the next Parliament after Canadians elected a Tory minority government Monday, ending a 12-year reign of Liberal rule.

"Tonight friends, our great country has voted for change. And Canadians have asked our party to take the lead in delivering that change," Harper told supporters in Calgary.

Harper acknowledged that Canadians have not given any one party a majority and have asked all parties to work together.

Earlier, Liberal Leader Paul Martin announced that he will step down as leader.

The Conservatives were elected in 124 ridings, the Liberals were elected in 102 (leading in one other), the Bloc was elected in 51 and the NDP was elected in 29. One Independent was elected, in Quebec.

"There will be another chance and there will be another time," Martin told a roomful of supporters in Montreal. He said he called Harper to congratulate him.

The Conservatives picked up more than 36 per cent of the popular vote, an increase of seven per cent from 2004. This compared to the Liberals with 30 per cent and the NDP with 17.5 per cent.

An impressive performance from a party formed only three years ago out of the ruins of the older Conservative Party. However, since there was a genuine belief in prominent quarters that the Conservatives might have won a majority government, and since they came nearly 30 seats short of a majority, there is bound to be spin stating that the Conservatives do not have a genuine mandate to govern. I think this could have been avoided by having the Conservatives argue that their ability to contend for the chance to form a government after 13 years of Liberal control and only three years after the culmination of the "Unite The Right" movement was triumph in and of itself, and that having reformed their political party, the Conservatives would not work to reform Canada. This would have kept the focus on the Conservatives' phoenix-like rise from the ashes, instead of on high expectations that a majority government might be achieved.

Having said all of this, it now behooves the next Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to behave as if he does have a majority. This does not entail being arrogant with power. But it does entail the understanding that the very people who today warn him not to be arrogant with power are those who tomorrow will scold him if he is timid with it.

This story should be noted as well:

Academic and author Michael Ignatieff, sporting a bright red Liberal tie, walked into a west Toronto tavern last night to a roar of welcoming cheers as the next member of Parliament for Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

His comfortable victory over Conservative businessman John Capobianco and aspirations to travel far in public life seem certain to propel him into the ring of challengers to Paul Martin for the Liberal Party's leadership.

He recalled that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper came into the constituency 10 days ago to tell voters to "send that Ignatieff fellow back to Harvard." Mr. Ignatieff paused. "Well, the voters of Etobicoke-Lakeshore thought about it for awhile and decided to send that Ignatieff fellow to Ottawa."

The tall, lanky, 58-year-old celebrity intellectual told his supporters: "I don't know where the road leads from here." But asked by a reporter if he wants to be prime minister, he replied: "That's a presumptuous question."

He said he feels "okay" about going into opposition. "There's going to be lots to oppose." And he said his party was justly punished by Quebec voters for the sponsorship scandal. "The message from Quebec was that the sponsorship scandal was not just a little piece of malfeasance. The message is that we don't do that ever again."

The urbane Harvard scholar, seen by many in his party as a new-model Pierre Trudeau, very much shares the late prime minister's view of federalism with a strong national government. However, his reported desire to emulate Mr. Trudeau and move quickly from political outsider to prime minister has been derided by political scientists as unrealistic. Mr. Trudeau, they say, was an anomaly.

Following Professor Ignatieff's lead, there is no reason whatsoever why we in America cannot elect academics to Congress. Indeed, now that Daniel Drezner will be decamping to Massachusetts, and given the fact that Ted Kennedy will be up for re-election this year . . .

Well, I don't have to draw a picture for you, do I?