Canada’s Chretien sets new record

Chretien had called an election only 3-1/2 years into his five-year mandate, overriding his advisers and legislators.

The Prime Minister had wanted to take advantage of a sizeable lead in the polls and strong economic growth, and to catch the fledgling but surging small-government Canadian Alliance opposition off guard.

He succeeded. The Alliance, which favors deep reductions in taxes and debt, did not have all its candidates ready or its team together, and it showed through a series of errors during the five-week campaign.

"I pledge to work hard every single day throughout the whole of this mandate to continue to earn your trust and your support," Chretien told cheering supporters in his hometown of Shawinigan, where he has now been elected 11 Times.

"It’s an incredible opportunity to receive a mandate like this."

"I want to congratulate the Prime Minister for his three majority governments in a row. This is indeed an historic event in our country," said Finance Minister Paul Martin, who would like to replace him but who campaigned loyally for him.

The Liberals were elected or leading in 173 seats, in tabulations early on Tuesday morning. They went into the campaign, one of the nastiest in recent Canadian history, with 161 seats and needed only 151 to retain their majority.

Despite opinion polls saying it would be a close race, the Liberals held on to their huge power base in Ontario and made inroads in other parts of Eastern Canada.

The Alliance failed dismally in its bid to become more than just a Western Canadian protest party, virtually shut out of Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, but it became even stronger in the West.

The Alliance, which started with 58 seats, was elected or leading in 66 and cemented its position as the main party on the right, now clearly ahead of the Conservative Party, which has refused to end vote-splitting on the right.

"It is clear that even with our increased support across the country, the message to us is not yet. Not this time," Alliance leader Stockwell Day said in British Columbia.

The vote-splitting particularly hurt in Ontario, which accounts for a third of the 301-seat House of Commons.

The Alliance had held just one seat in Ontario and, despite Day having spent much of the five-week campaign in the province, the party was leading or elected in only two of the 103 seats while the Liberals took 100, down only one.

Many analysts had expected it to be the last election fought by Chretien, 66, who first entered politics in 1963. Accused of arrogance and a lack of vision, he had been under enormous pressure to make way for the more conservative and popular Finance Minister Martin.

But this victory clearly strengthened his hand.

One of the surprises was in Quebec, where the separatist Bloc Quebecois had won the majority of the seats in the last two elections as the result of a federalist vote split between the Liberals and the Conservative Party.

But the Conservative vote in Quebec collapsed and the Liberals appeared to have picked up eight more seats.

Despite larger Conservative troubles nationally, party leader Joe Clark scored an upset in winning a seat in the Albertan city of Calgary, where the Alliance is headquartered.

"You and I together, we did the impossible," Clark said to a roar of applause by a big crowd of Conservative supporters. The Conservatives dropped to 12 seats from 15.

The leftist New Democratic Party had also fought to keep its 19 seats. They were leading or elected in 13 seats, and party leader Alexa McDonough managed to be reelected.

In preliminary results, the Liberals increased their vote tally slightly, to 41 percent from 38 percent.

The Alliance rose to 25 percent from 19 percent. The Conservatives dropped to 12 percent from 19 percent while the New Democrats fell to 9 percent from 11 percent.

Financial markets put their own tentative seal of approval on the Liberal victory as the Canadian dollar climbed and bond prices edged modestly higher.