New Democrats might cross the floor to give the liberals a majority

Edmonton(ATB); The Liberals picked up a Bloc Quebecois-leaning seat, raising their total to 169, three short of a majority.

The Conservatives won their highest percentage vote in decades but still lost badly. They’re 25 seats behind the governing Liberals.

The shattered New Democrats, with seven seats, could still imagine they have some policy influence.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves Francois Blanchet put an end to that hope.

He said that barring a major crisis or bad faith on the part of the Liberals, his party will support Prime Minister Mark Carney for at least a year.

As long as Carney doesn’t dream of a pipeline through Quebec.

Jagmeet Singh lost his riding and quit as NDP leader. The party is five seats short of official status. They have little parliamentary money and no cash to campaign.

Technically, the Bloc and Conservatives voting together would still fall short of a Liberal-NDP vote.

Already there’s talk that a few New Democrats — three would do it — might cross the floor to give the Liberals a majority.

One name that pops up is Don Davies, the New Democrat who won Vancouver Kingsway on Monday night.

He was lavish, not to say slavish, in his praise of Carney and the Liberals before the election.

“I was proud to work with my Liberal colleagues to deliver dental care,” Davies gushed in a letter to constituents.

Floor-crossings would put the tombstone on the NDP as a national party; but it’s almost underground already.

The Bloc now has fewer seats than before — 22 — but far more parliamentary leverage.

Albertans might now ask what the Bloc will try to extort from the Liberals for that year of harmony.

Premier Danielle Smith warned Carney against forming an “unholy alliance” with the Bloc or the NDP remnants.

A commentator on Radio-Canada said in French on Tuesday that Prime Minister Mark Carney owes his job to “the Quebec nation.”

Payment of about $2 billion should cover the debt, he said.

The Liberals are achingly close to a majority. Who knows what deals they’ll strike to have a free hand in dealing with the country and U.S. President Donald Trump?

The most dramatic storyline was Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s defeat in his long-time Ottawa Carleton riding.

It wasn’t even close. Liberal Bruce Fanjoy won by nearly 4,000 votes. The Conservatives won 41.4 per cent of the popular vote, two per cent behind the Liberals.

Both parties captured far more votes — and higher percentages — than they did in the past two elections.