VZCZCXRO6183
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