There we have it

well it was E-night last night. very eventful as usual. some upsets (NDP win in Edmonton, beating out longtime Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer), some no-surprises : Michael Fortier failing to win his riding, Elizabeth May falling to Mackay, and Harper collecting a whopping 72 percent of the vote in his riding.

Hats off to May, she really did come close. David Orchard, running for the first time as a Liberal in the northernmost Saskatchewan riding of Desnethe-Misinippi, made a good showing.

Now the fun begins though. The Conservatives have another minority. Yet, no two parties can combine their votes to vote them down (it would take all three: the Grits, the Bloc and the NDP).

Harper has some controversial bills he'd like to put into motion. Among them cuts to arts funding and treating 14 year old young offenders as adults under the Criminal Code.

So. The Conservatives will lay their proposals on the table. The other parties may or may not support them. If they don't support the motions then essentially there would be a "vote of non-confidence". By convention, the leading party would then have to call an election.

Yet Canadians don't want another election. We've already had three in a little over four years. So what do they do? Do they support Harper's policies?

Harper in his "victory" speech called on the other parties to "set partisan politics aside" and work together for the benefit of Canadians. The trouble is, Harper and the Conservatives are so ideologically different from the other parties. Does he expect the Bloc to support the Conservative party motion to treat 14 / 16 year olds as adults in court? Does he expect the NDP to accept major corporate tax cuts? I don't really see how this is going to work.

We'll wait and see.