c9 | I call it "House of Commons, in Excel." (Reply)

A graph (by me) of the seats won in the House of Commons in each general election since 1867 (when Canada was founded, for those unaware). I found it interesting to look at.

Items to note:

The dotted line shows 50%+1 seats, the number required to have majority control of the House. In a majority, the governing party gets up to five years in power, whereas in a minority the opposition can topple the government on money bills and confidence motions (as we saw 30-odd days ago).
Canada has a long tradition of protest parties, it's not just recent. For example, the Anti-Confederation Party at far left won 18 of Nova Scotia's 19 seats in the first general election, and their goal was to reverse Nova Scotia's joining of Confederation. Britain wouldn't let it happen though.
Another protest party, Social Credit (burgundy) actually led in a way to the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties (green). You can see that the Conservatives' lowest points are far less so when combined with the Progressives in the 1920s and Reform/CA in the 90s.
You can also see CCF, which became the NDP in 1961 or so. There really shouldn't even be a gap there.
There have been both United Farmers of Alberta and United Farmers of Ontario parties. Only UFA really got anywhere.
The Conservative Party joined with the Progressives in 1942, to create the Progressive-Conservative Party of Canada. Or, as one pundit liked to call it, "the backwards forwards party." In 2003, the PCs officially dissolved upon merging with the Canadian Alliance, but I drew the C -> PC -> C sequence as one line, for historically speaking it's the same party, just a little righter than it used to be.
The Tories are sometimes called the party of Confederation, but the Liberals are nicknamed "Canada's Natural Governing Party."

Judging by the squiggle pattern (because of course that's how these predictions are done), I predict a Conservative minority. We're about due.

Sources: Wikipedia, www.parl.gc.ca