Prime Minister Jean Chrétien captured his third consecutive majority government yesterday by virtually sweeping Ontario and regaining seats in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.
The victory is particularly sweet for the self-styled "little guy from Shawinigan" because it comes with a big gain in seats in francophone regions of Quebec, where he has often been vilified as a sellout by sovereigntists.
However, the Liberal win leaves the country angrily divided along key fault lines between East and West.
At press time, the Liberals had won or were leading in 169 ridings, including 100 in Ontario, while the Canadian Alliance remained the Official Opposition with 68 seats, all but two in Western Canada.
Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day failed to make his much-sought-after breakthrough in Ontario, picking up only two seats in Eastern Ontario.
He had taken over the leadership of the Alliance -- an amalgam of the old Reform Party and some provincial Tories -- in the hopes of ending the vote-splitting in Ontario.
With the final tallies not yet in, Liberals were in danger of losing some of their most senior western cabinet ministers, including Justice Minister Anne McLellan in Edmonton, and Environment Minister David Anderson in Victoria.
The majority was bigger than in the last election in 1997, but smaller than in 1993 when Mr. Chrétien came to power.
The "three-peat" vindicates Mr. Chrétien's gamble to call an early election that few but he thought was winnable and puts him in the rarefied company of Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Mackenzie King as the only Canadian leaders to win three consecutive majorities.
His surprisingly strong win should also quiet any talk of leadership changes within the Liberal Party and allow the Prime Minister to call the timing of his own retirement.
Health Minister Allan Rock said Mr. Chrétien's victory should end any talk of revolt within Liberal ranks.
"We have a leader who has the confidence of the country," he said.
Liberal strategist Michael Robinson, a key supporter of leadership hopeful Finance Minister Paul Martin, said Mr. Chrétien has demonstrated his political shrewdness and cemented his mastery of the party.
"He is going to govern for as long as he chooses," Mr. Robinson said. The Prime Minister will also point to the win as proof that Canadians have rejected opposition charges that tarnished his personal integrity.
Despite his historic victory, Mr. Chrétien has been damaged by a bruising campaign that featured charges of wrongdoing in his riding and reduced the Liberals to a rump in Western Canada.
Liberal candidates continued to benefit from vote-splitting between the Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives in Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
The Liberals secured their majority while winning roughly 42 per cent of the popular vote across the country. The Alliance had about 23 per cent, well above the 19 per cent won by the Reform Party in 1997.
Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark won his own riding in Calgary, but was unable to translate increased support for him personally during the election into many seats.
Mr. Clark was widely seen as having momentum at the end of the campaign. But the Tories appeared to have lost official party status, which requires at least 12 seats.
New Democratic Party Leader Alexa McDonough, on the other hand, was unable to command much attention during the campaign but appeared to have won her own seat and to have eked out enough seats to maintain official party status.
Mr. Chrétien launched the election campaign only 3½ years into his second mandate, the second time he has called for a vote less than four years after winning a majority.
When he spoke to reporters on a fine fall day five weeks ago, he said he was looking for a mandate from Canadians on how to allocate the government's massive surplus. He said the election would pit Liberal values of balance and sharing against the Canadian Alliance's emphasis on tax cuts for individuals.
However, Mr. Chrétien quickly discovered that the Liberal record of budget cuts during the government's deficit days left his party vulnerable on issues such as health care, the environment and unemployment insurance.
The campaign degenerated from a discussion of party policy to one of personal invective and mudslinging.
In Quebec, the Liberals ran against the Bloc Québécois sovereignty platform and benefited from a low voter turnout among Bloc supporters.
The Liberals sought to demonize the Alliance and Mr. Day, accusing the party of harbouring racists and having a hidden agenda to promote private health care and impose a socially conservative ideas on the country.
Mr. Day, the former Alberta finance minister who won the leadership of the party from Preston Manning last July, showed his inexperience in a national campaign. He was frequently put on the defensive, explaining his party's policy on key issues such as abortion, or doing damage control after controversial statements by his MPs and candidates.
At the same time, both Mr. Day and Mr. Clark attacked Mr. Chrétien personally, characterizing him as arrogant, aloof and even corrupt. The opposition parties are likely to keep up their attacks when the House of Commons resumes after the election.
The aggressive attacks appeared to take their toll on the Liberal Leader, as polls showed Liberal support slipping away to the Tories, the Bloc, and to a lesser extent, the Alliance.
At one point in the latter days of the campaign, Mr. Day suggested that Mr. Chrétien himself may have broken the law by lobbying on behalf of a former business associate who was looking for a loan for a hotel in the Prime Minister's riding.
Both he and Mr. Clark called for an RCMP investigation into Mr. Chrétien's activities.
Last week, Howard Wilson, the federal ethics counsellor who was appointed by the Prime Minister, cleared Mr. Chrétien of conflict of interest, saying he was merely lobbying on behalf of a constituent and had no personal gain from the deal.
However, opposition leaders said Mr. Wilson is a toothless watchdog and have called for an independent inquiry into Mr. Chrétien's efforts to secure financing for projects in his riding.
On Saturday, The Globe and Mail reported that a controversial hotel owned by a friend of Mr. Chrétien got a large injection of money, organized by an immigrant investment broker who met with the prime minister a day before the deal was finalized.
At issue is Mr. Chrétien's lobbying of the president of the federal Business Development Bank to provide a $615,000 loan to Yvon Duhaime to expand the Auberge Grand-Mère in his riding.
In the past, Mr. Chrétien had denied being personally involved in helping Mr. Duhaime secure financing.
Sources told The Globe the 1996 meeting, at 24 Sussex Dr., was arranged by Yvon Duhaime, owner of the Auberge Grand-Mère, at the request of the broker.
A sworn affidavit used by the RCMP to obtain a search warrant alleges that Mario Pépin and Paul Lemire "diverted" funds to a personal bank account. The two men are supporters of Mr. Chrétien.