Cablegate: Final Results of the 2008 Canadian Election

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OO RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHMT RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #1430 3122042
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 072042Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8711
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS OTTAWA 001430

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV CA
SUBJECT: FINAL RESULTS of THE 2008 CANADIAN ELECTION

REF: OTTAWA 1324

1. (U) Elections Canada has now validated all results of the 2008
federal election on October 14 (reftel and previous). The results
are not technically official until the Chief Electoral Officer
publishes them in a formal report on or before January 14, 2009
(within 90 days of the return of the writ of election), but are all
nonetheless final as of November 6 (following a series of obligatory
recounts -- see para 3).

2. (U) The final party standings in the 40th Parliament's House of
Commons are:

Conservative Party of Canada 143 seats
Liberal Party of Canada 77 seats
Bloc Quebecois 49 seats
New Democratic Party (NDP) 37 seats
Independent 2 seats

Total 308 seats

3. (U) Recounts took place in five "ridings" (electoral districts).
An automatic judicial recount must take place if the difference
between the number of votes cast for the candidate with the most
votes and the number cast for any other candidate is less than one
one-thousandth (1/1000) of the votes cast in that riding. Automatic
recounts took place in the ridings of Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario)
and Vancouver South (British Columbia). Judicial recounts also took
place in three other ridings at the request of at least one elector
in each riding. An elector must provide credible evidence that
officials may have committed errors in tabulating the votes. The
recount in the Quebec riding of Brossard-La Prairie reversed the
election night victory of a Bloc Quebecois candidate and awarded the
seat to a Liberal candidate. All other recounts affirmed the
originally declared victors.
WILKINS

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