What's next for Tony Martin, MP

At one nail-biting point during the counting of ballots on Monday night, with 140 of 203 polls reporting in Sault Ste. Marie, just 53 votes separated Carmen Provenzano from Tony Martin.

But Martin, the three-term provincial representative ousted in the last Ontario election, managed to maintain his lead throughout the night.

And the veteran New Democratic politician has a new job.

He'll be replacing Provenzano as the Sault's representative in Ottawa.

Martin gathered 16,483 votes, compared to 15,734 for Liberal Provenzano and 10,098 for Conservative Cameron Ross.

Julie Emmerson of the Green Party got 813 votes and Mike Taffarell of the Marxist-Leninists brought up the rear with 67.

Low turnout

Local turnout in the 38th General Election was just 63.5 percent, down from 63.8 in the 2000 election and 66.6 percent in 1997.

Tony Martin is expected to become one of 19 NDP members of Parliament.

His party has almost doubled its representation in the House of Commons since the last election.

Paul Martin's Liberals returned to power, albeit as a minority government with just 135 of 308 available seats, down 42 from the 2000 election.

Unless they can forge a coalition with another party, minority governments tend to be short-lived because important bills can be put to a non-confidence vote, forcing another election.

NDP could play crucial role

That could put the balance of power largely in the hands of the NDP, or the Bloc Québécois, which is expected to have 54 MPs.

The Liberals need support from 20 opposition MPs to survive - one more than the NDP can deliver.

Another option for the Liberals would be to find enough MPs from both parties to ensure that each piece of legislation passes.

There were also a number of races that were close enough that judicial recounts are possible, although such efforts rarely change electoral outcomes.

In Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing riding, Liberal Brent St. Denis was returned to office with 14,273 votes, beating New Democrat Carol Hughes' 11,051 votes.

Martin outlines his priorities

Martin told SooToday.com that he sees an urgent need to address agricultural issues in the riding, particularly problems getting beef across the border.

He also wants to work on urgent water-quality problems in other parts of the riding.

And within the City of Sault Ste. Marie, voters have told him that economic issues remain paramount.