With 124 seats won out of a total of 308, the Conservative Party of Canada expects to form a minority government in Ottawa shortly. As a Canadian of my acquaintance explained to me, the Conservatives do not need to form a coalition with another party in order to govern, but they do need to have at least 31 other members of Parliament support their initiatives. If the Conservatives lose an important vote, their government could need to resign causing new elections. There is a major incentive for the balance of Parliament not to cause a quick collapse of the Conservative government, at least before 18 to 24 months pass. No one wants to be blamed for a quick return to the ballot box.
Canada is, in this way, unlike other parliamentary democracies. When Germany had its recent elections, and the Christian Democrats under Angela Merkel won a plurality but not a majority in the Bundestag, it took weeks of negotiations to create a grand coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats. Such a system would have made things much more interesting in Canada. The Conservatives would have needed to ally either with the Bloc Quebecois, which seeks independence for the Province of Quebec from Canada, or with the Liberals in a similar grand coalition. Neither would have been very easy to pull off.
The fact that Canada has a minority government means that there will be little boat-rocking on Parliament Hill in Ottawa - at least until the whole boat is ready to sink.
See the comment from Left Center Left on the Canadian elections.
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