The Liberal Party narrowly held onto federal control in the June 28 national elections in Canada.

The Liberals won 135 out of 308 seats in the House of Commons with nearly 37 percent of the vote, allowing Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin the right to form a minority government. The Liberals would have needed 155 seats to gain majority control.

Pre-election polls indicated that the Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper, was tied with the Liberals. However, the Conservatives won only 99 seats.

The New Democratic Party won 19 seats. Bloc Quebecois won 54 seats.

In the 2000 elections, the Liberals won 172 seats. Conservatives that are now in a merged party won 78. The NDP won 13, and the Bloc Quebecois won 38.

Jack Layton, who leads the labor-supported NDP, said the election results demonstrate the need for democratic election reform in Canada. The party won 15.7 percent of the popular vote but only 6 percent of the seats in the House of Commons.

Layton said the current system encourages Canadians to engage in strategic voting against a certain party, rather than voting their true choice. He said he believes that many NDP supporters voted Liberal to block Conservative candidates in many ridings.

"We shouldn't be asking citizens to play pundit," Layton said. "We should be enabling citizens to vote in favor of the policies they support and the future that they want."

Layton acknowledged that the Liberals' minority status will provide the NDP with the opportunity to influence close votes on issues that the two parties both support.

"Mr. Martin made a series of promises in this election, and I would like to believe that Mr. Martin intends to follow through on those promises about keeping health care public, about not being involved in 'Star Wars,' about a national child care program and many other things," Layton said. "And we'll be there working very hard to make sure that the course that he spoke about . . . is not varied."