Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party have won a minority government in the Canadian general election this evening, albeit with a larger caucus than when Parliament was dissolved.  The Tories will head to Otttawa with 144 Members of Parliament.  There are 308 ridings in the Canadian House of Commons. A party must win 155 seats to win a majority. 

There was a possibility at the beginning of the election that Harper might win a majority but the odds were long. The Conservatives slipped as polling day drew near, and there were projections that Harper might win around the same number of seats - 127 - the Tories held before the writ was dropped.  However, the Tories did a bit better than expected today while the opposition Liberals did worse, giving the Conservatives a workable minority.

The main challenger to the Conservatives was the Liberal Party.  The main plank of the Liberals was their so-called Green Shift, which would have raised taxes on the energy industry offset by lower taxes elsewhere.  This would have hurt Canadian stocks as about 30% of the Canadian market is comprised of energy companies.  Thus, Harper's re-election with a stronger mandate is positive for Canadian stocks and the Canadian dollar, aka the "loonie."