Congratulations to Elizabeth May, Canada's first Green MP

Elizabeth May, the leader of the Canadian Greens has won their first ever Parliamentary seat defeating a long-standing cabinet minister.

Having run an innovative campaign, including a series of attack ads against attack ads, and running a ruthlessly targeted strategy. May won an incredible 47% of the vote beating her opponent by a full 13%.

Accepting victory she said "I stand here today as the first elected Green member of Parliament in Canadian history... I remain committed, as I've been throughout this campaign, to rejecting the politics of cynicism of fear, to embracing hope and to bringing respect back to our House of Commons."

It was a night of decapitations as Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe both lost their seats. In fact the Liberals lost half their seats and Bloc Quebecois were obliterated going from 49 seats t the last election to just four.

The headline of the  night, of course, is that the Conservatives won an overall majority and it was a historic night for the centre left New Democratic Party which won 103 seats and over 30% of the vote despite never having had more than 43 seats since it started running in elections from 1962.


So, although not quite good news all round, there will be at least three sets of party faithful quaffing champagne until the early hours and beyond - best wishes and love to the Green Party who've had a long hard struggle to get their under First Past the Post.

Update: thought people would like to see the percentages and seats (this is all conducted under First Past the Post). Another good argument for proportional representation (from here);