Canada Liberals show early electoral gains

Chretien casts his ballot in his district at Ecole Saint-Flore in Grand-Mere, Quebec

OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- Prime Minister Jean Chretien's Liberals rebounded in the crucial Atlantic Canada region, helping them in their bid to be the first party to win three straight parliamentary majorities in half a century.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien's Liberals picked up seven new seats to give them 19 of the 32 Atlantic spots in the 301-seat House of Commons. They had hoped for 10 seats to offset possible losses elsewhere in Canada.

Former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin, drafted to run for the federal Parliament to resuscitate Liberal fortunes in the poorer Atlantic region, was triumphant.

"The Liberals are poised to win a third straight historic majority government," he declared.

He said after talking to Chretien that the prime minister was in "a great mood."

RESOURCE List of Canadian parties contesting election     MESSAGE BOARD Share your thoughts on today's events in Canada     RESOURCES Election Watch: Canada     ALSO No chads, uniform ballots make voting simple in Canada Profile: Chretien plays up French-Canadian working-class roots Stockwell Day: Little-known preacher propelled to main opposition

The Liberals need 151 seats to retain their majority in the House of Commons. They went into the election with 161.

Chretien, a veteran political operator, had ignored his advisors in calling the election 3-1/2 years into his five-year mandate to capitalize on lofty standings in the polls and to cut off a surge in the opposition Canadian Alliance, which wants to limit government's role.

Opinion polls had said the Liberals were heading for a third consecutive term but Stockwell Day's right-wing Canadian Alliance had taken solace in the large number of undecided voters on election eve, following one of the nastiest campaigns in recent Canadian history.

Many analysts expect it to be the last election fought by Chretien, 66, who first entered politics in 1963. Accused of arrogance and a lack of vision during the campaign, he has been under enormous pressure both inside and outside his party to make way for his more conservative finance minister, Paul Martin.

During the five-week campaign, Chretien hinted he might step down in two or three years, but made no commitment.

With the Alliance the dominant opposition group, the Conservative Party and the leftist New Democratic Party had fought hard to maintain 15 and 19 seats, respectively.

New Democratic leader Alexa McDonough managed to retain hers but lost three of her seven seats in the Atlantic region.

The Conservative camp, which has slipped after refusing to join with the Alliance to end vote-splitting on the right, took comfort in the fact that they were not wiped out. They lost four of their 13 Atlantic seats.

"Rumors of our demise were obviously grossly exaggerated. We had polls running showing us at zero and one and fighting for our very survival holding onto a handful of seats," said Goldy Hyder, Conservative leader Joe Clark's chief of staff.

Many of Canada's 20.4 million eligible voters questioned the need to hold a C$200 million election ($130 million) at all. Analysts say turnout could dip below the old record low of 67 percent recorded in the 1997 poll.

Chretien had accused Day of harboring "a hidden agenda" to destroy some of the country's public health-care system and to hold referendums on issues such as restricting abortion.

Day and his wife Valorie leave their polling station after casting their ballots in Summerside, Canada

Day had asked the police to investigate whether Chretien had broken the law by lobbying a federal bank to grant a loan to one of the prime minister's associates.

Chretien, first elected prime minister in 1993, favors a strong federal government that will actively help develop business and create jobs in Canada's poorer provinces.

The low-tax Alliance, with a power base in the more conservative West, wants to slash these programs and transfer many of Ottawa's powers to the 10 provinces.

Chretien holds power thanks largely to his virtually clean sweep of the 103 seats in Ontario in the last election.

The Alliance held just one seat in Ontario and, despite spending much of the five-week campaign in the province, polls suggested the party would at best pick up a handful more.

But the Alliance held most of the 88 seats in the four western provinces and was likely to add to its total of 57 there, furthering the split between the eastern and western halves of the country.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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