I am very tired this morning.

Yesterday, Canada held its second federal election in less than two years, and, just as I predicted the day the government fell, the Conservative Party won by a small minority.

I watched the CBC coverage, which featured one of my favourite politicians, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent. I love Ed. He's who made me interested in politics. I either met him or saw him when I was a young lass on my first trip to the Parlaiment Buildings, and he was leading the NDP to 43 seats in the House. The impression stuck, and I've been a loyal supporter ever since.

I watched until about 12:30 last ngiht (the new hours at polling stations mean that the coverage doesn't start until after 9:30 p.m. in Ontario), and watched until the last riding was in. I watched Paul Martin's speech, and listened as the interpreter told us how Martin's wife has dealt with the campaign.

And then, somehow, I missed the part where he resigned as leader of the Liberals.

I have to say I'm quite satisfied with the way this has turned out, with one exception.

We needed to shake up the Liberal stronghold on the country and get rid of Paul Martin (sorry, babe, but somebody's gotta be the fall-guy!). If the Liberals stayed in power, that would never happen. Since the Bloc Quebecois can't win and neither can the NDP (I still loves you, though, Jack!), it had to be the Conservatives. Most of the people who voted Conservative in Ontario (and I would wager the vast majority who voted that way in Quebec) cast their vote to punish the Liberals, not to reward the Conservatives, who—not that we really need reminding—ran on a platform of "The world was created 6,000 years ago" and "let's have millions of referrendums, starting with abortion and gay rights!" as the Canadian Alliance party not six years ago.

So fine, we get a Bush-lovin', good ol' country boy from the West for a couple of years or so, and the Liberals get their shit together, elect a new leader who isn't 80, and remember why Canada loved them in the first place.

My only wish is that either the Conservatives or the NDP would have taken two more seats. You need 155 seats to form a majority, and together they only got 153. Had they hit 155, the right would have been forced to work with the left in order to get things pushed through Parlaiment. And that would have been really cool to see.