Whither now, Canada?

While a decidedly different Parliament will be reconvened in the fall now that a protracted federal elections campaign in Canada has come and gone, little has changed in the West Island, with two Liberal incumbents and one Bloc incumbent returning to their seats in Lac St. Louis, Pierrefonds-Dollard and Vaudreuil-Soulanges, respectively.

"We have been a very effective opposition in the last year," said Francis Scarpaleggia, returning Liberal MP for Lac St. Louis, and he said he expects this to continue.

Scarpaleggia said the Liberal Party has a real "depth of talent," with several qualified MPs that were re-elected, although he expressed regret for some in Ontario who lost their seats.

In response to rumours and speculation that Liberal leader Stéphane Dion will resign soon following a campaign where only 26 per cent of the popular vote and 76 seats went to the party, Francis Scarpaleggia, who supported Dion when the latter made his leadership bid in 2006, said the least that could be done now was to leave Dion some time to make up his mind. "We have to give him the time he needs," Scarpaleggia said.

Pierre-Olivier Brunelle, who lost his bid for a Conservative seat in neighbouring Pierrefonds-Dollard to Liberal incumbent Bernard Patry, speculated the Grits will have to undergo a restructuring in order to be effective as a force again.

Brunelle improved his party's standings in Pierrefonds, finishing with 25.65 per cent of the popular vote. The only Conservative on the island of Montreal who did better than him was Rafael Tzoubari in Mount Royal, who also lost to a Liberal incumbent.

The results have buoyed his spirits. "I can't wait until there's another election," he said, expressing a wish to run again in Pierrefonds-Dollard.

However, Brunelle admit a Conservative minority government would still be unable to govern on its own. "M. Harper will have to find an ally (among the other parties)," he told The Chronicle<@$p>, suggesting it will perhaps have to be the Liberals.

And whereas the prime minister did strike a conciliatory tone in his victory speech early Wednesday, stating he would work more closely with opposition parties, some remained skeptical of his claims.

"I'd be amazed," said Lac St. Louis Green Party candidate Peter Graham, who finished in fourth place with 8.6 per cent of the vote. With the Green Shift taken off the Liberal Party's website, and not a single Green Party candidate elected to Parliament, Graham is pessimistic about anybody championing the environment at the House of Commons.

Graham was disappointed in the low voter turn-out, a historic low of 59 per cent, which he said may also have affected his own performance. "If more people voted, I think we would have reached 10 per cent," he said.

His NDP rival Dan Quinn, who finished in third place with 15.7 per cent of the popular vote, was enthused with his performance, stating his campaign laid some solid seeds for future growth, like the NDP's nationally.

Despite the low voter turn-out, the $308 million spent in campaigning money, and the return of a Conservative minority government, Quinn did not think the elections were a waste. "You can't put a price tag on democracy," he said.

Green Party candidate Ryan Young, who ran and finished in fifth place with seven per cent of the popular vote, said nothing much seems to have changed in his eyes. "I don't think (Parliament) is that different," he said.

When Parliament reconvenes, the Liberals will have 19 less MPs than they did before it dissolved mid-September. The Conservatives will have gained 16 seats, and the NDP seven, for a total of 37. The Bloc will head in with a total of 50 seats, and the Greens none.

John Abbott political science professor James Leeke was not surprised that not much moved and shook locally. "(The local MPs') reputation is that they're decent constituency members," he explained. In the case of the two West Island MPs, it also helps that the "Liberal brand is still strong."

From interacting with his students and others, Leeke said he has the sense many voters do not necessarily feel their voices would make a difference. "There's a huge amount of people out there who feel that voting doesn't really make a difference," he said, and that needs to change.