Liberal leader Jean ChrŽtien won the biggest political gamble of his life Nov. 27, returning the Liberals to national power with an increased House of Commons majority.
It was the third Liberal majority in a row, the first in 55 years.
But the news for the West was not so positive.
Analysts said that with fewer Liberal seats in the region, the West could be even more isolated in the new government.
Canadian Wheat Board minister Ralph Goodale won his Regina seat but few other prairie Liberals will be going back to Ottawa. Manitoba MP David Iftody, the only rural western Liberal for the past seven years, was defeated.
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“I don’t think the western farmer voice will be heard in this government,” said Alberta wheat farmer, Conservative supporter and Western Canadian Wheat growers’ Association president Ted Menzies.
In Calgary, Mount Royal College political science professor Keith Brownsey said the new House of Commons will have the same deaf ear for western farm issues as did the last Parliament.
“I think the Liberals were punished out here because they did not respond to farm issues,” he said. “But in the new House, it looks like we’re looking at a whole lot of the same.”
In Manitoba, veteran provincial Conservative agriculture minister turned Canadian Alliance activist Harry Enns saw a danger signal in the political division of the country.
“The West is becoming more and more isolated from the powerbrokers, principally in Ontario,” he said. “The West’s position in Confederation … has been weakened.”
When vote counting ended for the night in the early hours of Nov. 28, the Liberals held 173 seats, a 12-seat gain in the 301-seat House of Commons. Several recounts in close seats were certain.
The Liberals retained a stranglehold on Ontario with 100 of 103 seats. Agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief was easily re-elected in his Belleville, Ont.-area seat.
The Canadian Alliance, with 66 seats and a eight-seat gain, was second. It made a small, two-seat breakthrough in Ontario but failed to score significantly outside the West.
The separatist Bloc QuŽbecois was third, losing heavily to a rejuvenated Quebec Liberal campaign and sending the sovereigntists into a tailspin. BQ agriculture critic HŽlene Alarie was defeated.
The New Democrats came fourth with losses in Atlantic Canada, Saskatchewan and British Columbia but a single seat gain in Ontario. Agriculture critic Dick Proctor was re-elected in Regina.
The Progressives held onto fifth place and official House of Commons status with 12 seats, depending on a recount in their razor-thin victory in a Quebec seat. Former agriculture critic Rick Borotsik was re-elected in Brandon.
For Alliance leader Stockwell Day, the poor result and just two seats in Ontario were a disappointment, although he told an election-night crowd in Penticton, B.C., that they should be positive.
The new CA has increased both seats and popular vote across Canada, he said.
“We continue to be the federal alternative to the Liberals.”
NDP leader Alexa McDonough sounded relieved to have retained her Halifax seat and House of Commons status for her party. It lost three of five seats won in 1997 in Saskatchewan, but several recounts are possible.
Conservative leader Joe Clark told his enthusiastic Calgary Centre crowd that the Tories remain central to Canadian politics despite their fifth place finish.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen said the returning batch of MPs should not expect any relief from farmer demands that government make more farm aid money available.
“The Liberals promised more money during the campaign and we are going to be there to make sure they come through,” he said.
