When Canada's next prime minister, Stephen Harper, delivered his acceptance speech after winning 36.3 per cent of the popular vote on Monday, his gestures were euphoric, but his words were subdued.
Mr Harper's Conservative Party won 124 seats in the Canadian parliament, 31 short of what it needed to form a majority government in the 308-seat Lower House.
Mr Harper, a 46-year-old economist with his political power base in Alberta, will be forced to seek support from all opposition parties to deliver on his campaign pledges to cut taxes, reduce crime and clean up government. He has to govern with a parliament that he does not control.
No surprise then that Mr Harper struck a conciliatory tone when he promised to work for 'a more united, prosperous and safer country'. The Conservative Party's first national election win in 18 years offers little glory in which to bask. 'The election result signals a change of government, but not a change of the country,' Mr Harper said at his campaign headquarters in Alberta's financial centre, Calgary, acknowledging the fragility of his government before it is even formed.
The next government is promising to be even weaker than that of ousted Liberal Party PM Paul Martin, who managed to stay in power for only 18 months. 'This is a nightmare scenario for Harper,' said Peter McCormick, a political science professor at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. 'I don't know how much they can get done.'
But Mr Harper may have set in motion a seismic shift that can - in the long run - change Canada's political landscape beyond recognition. He will be the first prime minister from Alberta in 25 years. The Reform Party that he merged with another right-wing movement into the Conservative Party in 2003, was founded under the banner: 'The west wants in.'
