Conservatives take Canada's helm

OTTAWA -- Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper won national elections last night, an outcome that was expected to push Canada to the right on social and economic issues and lead to improved ties with the United States.

Official results showed the Conservatives holding a strong lead over the ruling Liberal Party, which had held power for nearly 13 years. Prime Minister Paul Martin conceded defeat just after midnight this morning.

It appeared unlikely, however, that the Conservatives would win enough seats in Parliament to rule outright. That will make it difficult to get legislation through a divided House of Commons. The Conservatives have no natural allies in Parliament and will therefore need to govern on an issue-by-issue basis with the backing of other parties.

Harper, a 46-year-old economist, was expected to give his victory speech after all the results are made public.

''We know that there is an undeniable and unstoppable sentiment for change in the country," deputy Conservative leader Peter MacKay told supporters. ''A change toward a new, clean, constructive attitude that will exist within a Conservative government."

Relations with the Bush administration are expected to improve under a Harper government, because his ideology runs along the same lines.

Harper has said he would reconsider a US missile defense scheme rejected by Martin's government. He also said he wanted to move beyond the Kyoto debate by establishing different environmental controls, to spend more on the Canadian military, to expand its peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan and Haiti, and to tighten security along the border with the United States in an effort to catch terrorists.

Conservatives won seats for the first time in French-speaking Quebec and made significant gains in the Liberal stronghold of Ontario.

According to official results, Conservatives either had won or were leading in races for about 123 seats; the Liberals had either won or were leading in races for 104 seats; the separatist Bloc Quebecois appeared to have 50 seats, and the New Democratic Party was poised to gain 30 seats.

The Conservative victory shifts the traditionally liberal country to the right on socioeconomic issues such as healthcare, taxation, abortion, and gay marriage.

Many Canadians have grown weary of the broken promises and corruption scandals under the Liberal Party and seemed willing to give Harper the benefit of doubts, despite fears that he was too extreme in his views opposing abortion and gay marriage.

During the campaign, Harper pledged to cut the red tape in social welfare programs, lower the national sales tax from 7 percent to 5 percent, and grant more autonomy and federal funding to Canada's 13 provinces and territories.

The Liberals have angered Washington in recent years, condemning the war in Iraq, refusing to join the continental antiballistic missile plan, and criticizing President Bush for rejecting the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions and enacting punitive Canadian lumber tariffs.

Martin, 67, had trumpeted eight consecutive budget surpluses. During the campaign he sought to paint Harper as a right-winger posing as a moderate to woo mainstream voters.

He said Harper supports the war in Iraq, which most Canadians oppose, and would try to outlaw abortion and overturn gay marriage.

Voters cast ballots at 60,000 polling stations amid unseasonably mild winter weather. Turnout from the country's 22.7 million registered voters was expected to be better than the 60 percent of the June 2004 election, the lowest number since 1898.

William Azaroff, 35, voted for the left-of-center New Democratic Party but conceded a Conservative government was likely to win.

''I think it's a shame," said the business manager from Vancouver, British Columbia. ''I think the last government was actually quite effective for Canadians. I think a Conservative government is just a backlash against certain corruption and the sense of entitlement."

Martin's government and the 308-member House of Commons were dissolved in November after New Democrats defected from the governing coalition to support the Conservatives in a no-confidence vote amid a corruption scandal involving the misuse of funds for a national unity program in Quebec.

An investigation absolved the prime minister of wrongdoing but accused senior Liberals of taking kickbacks and misspending tens of millions of dollars in public funds.