It was not the result Stephen Harper had hoped for when six weeks ago he called a general election. But it was much better than the outcome he must have feared a fortnight ago, when voters seemed gripped by panic over the economy. In the event the prime minister seemed happy enough at a victory rally in his adoptive hometown of Calgary on the night of October 14th. Canadians have returned his Conservative Party to power, still with a parliamentary minority but in a much stronger position. "Our party is bigger, our support base is broader," Mr Harper told a cheering crowd. And his main opponents, the Liberals, fared so poorly that they can no longer honestly call themselves a national party.
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