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Empresas y finanzas

Conservatives head for victory in Canada election


    By Janet Guttsman

    OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's ruling Conservatives looked set to retain power in a federal election on Monday, but pollsters said it was too early to say if the party would get a majority or stay in power with a minority.

    Early results showed the Conservatives well ahead of their nearest rivals, the left-leaning New Democrats.

    A party needs 155 seats to win a majority in the 308-seat House of Commons

    "We think we've certainly made headway, forged a beachhead if you will, in Atlantic Canada, picked up more seats and we're hoping that we will get ever closer to that magic 155 number," Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay said on CBC Television after holding on to his seat in Nova Scotia.

    The Conservatives, describing themselves as the guardians of a surprisingly resilient Canadian economy, stressed throughout the election campaign that they needed a majority to prevent an unstable coalition of opposition parties.

    The pro-labour NDP, which has never held power at the federal level, promised higher corporate taxes to pay for increased social spending, while the Liberals promised to increase spending on higher education.

    All three parties said they would balance the budget, although they had different methods of doing so.

    But opinion poll figures gave no clear indication on whether the Conservatives would get their majority, or whether the NDP might have a chance of forming a minority government, in coalition with the faltering Liberals.

    As the polls closed, early and provisional results showed the Conservatives ahead or winning in 133 electoral districts, while the NDP was ahead or winning in 59 districts. The Liberals were well behind at 27, while the Bloc Quebecois, which campaigns only in the French speaking province of Quebec had five.

    Before the election, the Conservatives had 143 seats, compared to 77 for the Liberals, 47 for the Bloc Quebecois and 36 for the New Democrats. There were two independents and three seats were vacant.

    Canada's three opposition parties brought the Conservative government down on March 25.

    The Conservatives led in opinion polls, but the left-leaning New Democrats narrowed the gap in the closing days of the campaign, putting in an especially strong showing in eastern Canada and in Quebec.

    (Additional reporting by David Ljunggren, Pav Jordan and Louise Egan; Editing by Eric Walsh)