Here are the results:

Ontario provincial election 2007

The Liberal's decisive majority Wednesday was accomplished with just roughly 42 per cent of the popular vote, compared to some 32 per cent support for the Conservatives and about 17 per cent for the NDP.

As for the referendum, the fools out there apparently voted overwhelmingly to keep the old "first past the post" system that they are used to and understand, instead of moving toward a more genuinely representational system of proportional representation. They are afraid of what they don't understand and have given little or no thought to, I expect.

The NDP must be feeling good. They made a gain of about 3% in the overall popular vote from last time. That gain does not translate into more seats, but it's still good news for them. The Greens also gained considerably in popular vote, but their gains will translate into no political representation at all with the "first past the post" system...same as you have in the USA. It's a system that tends to perpetuate the older and large parties in politics and keep the newer ones from getting their foot in the door. That's what I call "conservative" thinking... ;-)

So there were two main losers tonight: The provincial Conservative Party of Ontario....and innovative thinking. A bit ironical, that. The public has opted to maintain the old reliable status quo.

It is also often the case in Canada that when there is a Conservative federal government, as is the case at present, the public tends to vote in a number of Liberal provincial governments....and they do the opposite when it's vice versa. It seems to be an instinctive form of applying checks and balances. I'm not sure it works that way, but that's what tends to happen.

The NDP (socialists), by the way, have formed a number of provincial governments in the past, but they have never yet had the clout to win a federal election, and they probably never will.