Canadians brought about a minority Conservative government on Monday by electing a House of Commons in which 60 percent of the members will be out to destroy it.

That is, they gave Prime Minister-elect Stephen Harper's Conservative party 124 seats, outgoing Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals 103, the socialist New Democratic Party 29, and the Bloc Quebecois (whose declared purpose is to take Quebec out of Canada), 51. There was one independent.

As soon as the results were in, Martin announced that he would not lead the Liberals in another election.

The Conservatives formed a government that 36.3 percent of the electorate voted for, and the rest voted against. However, since that was 4 percent better than Conservative support in the last election 20 months ago, which elected a minority Martin government, Canadian public opinion must be minutely changing. The turnout – 65 percent of registered voters this time against 61 percent last time – also implied a modestly aroused public interest.

However, it didn't extend to eastern Canadian cities. The Conservatives won no seats whatever in Montreal and Toronto, and none in the core of Vancouver. In Calgary and Edmonton, by far the two fastest-growing urban areas in Canada, Harper took every seat. In fact, he claimed all 28 seats in his home province of Alberta. But the urban voter, outside Alberta, has clearly not embraced his conservative cause.

Finally, much of the Liberal cabinet, which now occupies the opposition benches, will initially know the problems of government far better than the novice Tory ministers.

So the question is: How conservative can a Conservative government be in such a precarious situation? The liberal media – which include most newspapers and commentators – were profuse with advice to the new prime minister, chiefly advice that he keep the conservative element in his party "under control," meaning not introduce any legislation that might be considered conservative.

But in so advising, they were underestimating Harper, something they have been doing since he won the leadership of the old Alliance Party four years ago, united it with the Tories, and has now brought it to power. At each stage, doubtful media commentators pronounced him a failure: "The Conservatives won, in a manner of speaking, and will form a minority government," wrote the Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson last week. "But it will be a weak one, 31 seats shy, farther from that threshold than the Conservatives had believed, hoped and expected." So his victory was a defeat. The remark was typical.

But Harper is no fool. He knows that if the opposition defeat him immediately, they will bring on another election, the third in three years, and be charged with not giving the man a chance.

Therefore, he can be expected to do the very reverse of what they're urging upon him. Now, rather than later, is the time to introduce the legislation they don't like – repealing the disastrous gun control law, restoring to the provinces the powers that Liberal governments have usurped, vastly strengthening the armed forces, regaining the confidence of the United States by restoring Canada's role in continental defense, cutting the federal sales tax from 7 percent to 6 percent, paying a day-care allowance to parents (rather than establishing a federally funded day-care system) and allowing a free vote on a bill to repeal the gay marriage law passed by the Liberals.

Such a fulsome program would establish his government as one that is out to make changes and intends to do what it promised. If the opposition defeated it, the Liberals would bring on an election in which they themselves could conceivably be leaderless. If they passed it, they would have in effect endorsed the Tory program.

There have been two other minority Tory governments in the last half-century. One of them, headed by Joe Clark in 1979, brought in a budget that imposed heavy taxes on gasoline. The Liberals and other parties defeated the budget in the house; the Liberals successfully portrayed Clark as a tool of the Alberta oil industry, won the election and then imposed even high taxes on gasoline.

The other, headed by John Diefenbaker in 1957, waited for the Liberals to pour scorn on its efforts to govern. Then Diefenbaker abruptly dissolved the house himself and in the ensuing election successfully portrayed the Liberals as arrogant power mongers. He defeated them soundly and won the biggest majority in Canadian history.

So, Harper's predecessors have lost one and won one. It all depends on how he handles it.