The election is over.

It feels good to say that. Whatever happened last night, it's all over and we can move forward. We have another Conservative minority government, and I've decided that (instead of dwelling on how sad I was for Stéphane Dion last night) I'm going to reflect on the election in an Accentuate the Positive list:

• At least we don't have a Conservative majority; they can't push through whatever they want, but need the help of the other parties. I find minority governments to be really interesting and creative times, particularly if all the parties are willing to co-operate and compromise. (So, political parties of Canada? How about you do that this time around? Work together? I'm particularly looking at the ruling party when I say that, because regardless of all their complaining about the deadlock in Ottawa, they were the primary ones not playing along.)
  
• I'm glad the election's over now. I don't think I could handle another week of electioneering, especially since I'm living in a region considered to be a "swing vote" or something; we've been inundated with signs, calls, rallies, and party leaders. If I saw another road side/constantly-crossing-the-road-while-carrying-blue-signs rally that was slowing down rush hour traffic, I was going to throw something.* But it's over now. Early this morning, I watched volunteers take down all those blue signs for the Conservative candidate running in our area.
  
• And, regardless of what else happened, my riding stayed NDP. And Ariann and Derek's riding stayed Liberal, even though it was a nail-biter (their PM won by only 68 votes!). I'd been really worried about my riding, because the Conservative candidate's campaigning was so visible and rush-hour-traffic-stopping. But my MP re-won the riding handily.
• CBC's coverage was lovely. Well, they could've deployed Rex Murphy and Rick Mercer more than they did, but their coverage was good and even-handed (both politically and regionally), and I loved their live-updating interactive map on their website. I could keep it open while I worked on other stuff on my computer and check periodically to see what colour the ridings had turned.
• Last night, I'd been just looking at the Edmonton map (on a map of Alberta that was solid blue with Conservatives), when Lynnie's riding suddenly turned orange! And stayed that colour! Seriously: Lyn's only lived there for a few months and she's already socialisted the place up. That little dot of orange made me happy.
  

* I find it ironic that the candidates that were running on a platform of "reduce rush-hour congestion!" were campaigning in a manner that increased rush-hour congestion.