There were some radical moves that defied the pollsters and pre-election pundits at the national level, but in Saskatchewan, the federal election results provided a solid status quo situation as the voting results poured into the returning offices Monday night.
With Jack Layton suddenly storming into Stornoway, taking over the residency reserved for the leader of the official Opposition in Ottawa, Canadian politics underwent a sea change of affiliations.
With a left leaning party now entrenched in second place, the more centralist Liberal party was reduced to the rubble of just a few seats scattered throughout the country with no defined power base while the separatist Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe was diced and decimated, losing official party status and clinging to just three or four seats, compared with 49 entering into the campaign.
On the West Coast, the Green Party finally managed a breakthrough with their leader Elizabeth May claiming a seat on their behalf. She became the first elected Green Party member in the House of Commons as of Tuesday morning.
In the local Souris-Moose Mountain riding, incumbent Ed Komarnicki once again was able to run roughshod over the political pretenders, claiming nearly three-quarters of the total votes cast, giving him the largest margin of victory in the province. Komarnicki joins 12 other Conservative Party incumbents as the Tory blue juggernaut in Saskatchewan dominated once again with the lone traditional exception being Ralph Goodale's win for the Liberals in the Regina Wascana riding.
In the southeast constituency, the only real drama that unfolded in the Komarnicki campaign office on Fourth Street occurred around 8:15 p.m. as the televised national seat numbers danced tantalizingly close to giving the Conservatives a majority of 155 seats in the House of Commons.
Huge roars of approval were emitted as the seat number climbed to 155, followed by groans of disappointment as the projection charts knocked it down to 154 seconds later, only to be followed by another round of applause a minute or two later as the figure jumped back to 155. But then the numbers moved onward to 156 and beyond, giving Prime Minister Stephen Harper his long sought after majority when the Tory seat count finally stopped at 167 with firm support once again being given to the governing party by Western Canada.
Komarnicki said he did not expect such a large drop in support for the Bloc Quebecois.
"I expected they would see some loss, but not that much," he said, as he soaked in the results and his obvious domination in Souris-Moose Mountain that was firmly established as early as 8 p.m., only a half-hour after the Saskatchewan polls closed.
By the time the provincial television stations closed their election-night broadcasts, Komarnicki had claimed 21,598 votes compared with 5,461 for the runner-up, Allan Arthur of the NDP and well ahead of Liberal Gerald Borrowman at 1,236 and the Green Party's Robert Deptuck who had just under 1,000 with 177 polling stations providing the results. It was believed the voter turnout in the local constituency exceeded the 59.4 per cent of 2008.
The last time Souris-Moose Mountain voters went to the polls in the fall of 2008, Komarnicki captured just over 70 per cent of the votes, compared with nearly 75 per cent this time around, garnering 19,293 votes with the NDP's Raquel Fletcher claiming 4,599 and the Liberal's Marlin Belt getting 1,834, just slightly more than Deptuck who was the Green candidate with 1,643 votes.
The veteran, four-time winner in the local constituency said the majority status will now give the government an opportunity to advance legislation to eliminate the long gun registry and restore and approve all the federal budget items that were left in limbo in March when Parliament had to be dissolved when the Conservatives lost a confidence vote after being declared by the Speaker to be in contempt of Parliament.
Asked if this would signal a softening of stances in the prime minister's office and a more open system of governing, Komarnicki smiled and said the majority meant that "Mr. Harper will have more time to get things done now instead of negotiating for everything."
As far as personal aspirations are concerned, Komarnicki said he would not speculate on any cabinet posts, noting that these were done at the pleasure of the prime minister.
While he was surprised with the decimation of the Bloc, Komarnicki said "we saw the Liberal decline coming and it was as predicted. The Liberal fear factor backfired."
With the local campaign, Komarnicki said the weekend blizzard that slammed the southeast didn't help any of the candidates, but his veteran experience told him what needed to be done right from the first day, through to the end and no, he was not tempted to take even one day off from the campaign trail during the short run-up to the election.
Komarnicki was willing to speculate that the Conservative government may now move forward with an enhancement to the senior Guaranteed Income Supplement program and a $1,000 credit for small businesses for hiring new people and they will probably stick with their planned corporate tax cuts that are structured to boost the economy and keep the recovery moving forward.
Asked to comment on the NDP surge in support, Komarnicki said NDP leader Jack Layton "is popular, unlike the Liberal leader," and admitted that the House of Commons will have a definite new texture once it reconvenes.
"One thing we won't have will be a cap and trade situation for greenhouse gases. We can get on with a carbon capture program here with sensible regulations," Komarnicki said.
In response to a question regarding majority status for the Conservatives for the first time in several years, Komarnicki said that in the past "we would negotiate with the other parties and then just before the vote, they would change their positions and that was frustrating. We need to be a responsible government, one that will be acceptable to all Canadians. Even in minority I believe we came through the recession as well or better than expected."
Komarnicki said with a majority, he felt the Conservative government will be able to deliver a solid and stable administration, one with a track record and many tried and true veteran MP members.
