What happens in Canada is that in every riding, the people in that area will elect a representative to the House of Commons. The party with the most seats in the House is in power, but we don't have a single individual who is in control like the President in the US. What we have (again) is the Conservatives with the most seats, but not a majority of them, which means that they will be held in check by the other parties. Not an ideal situation, and they were hoping to gain a majority by calling this annoying and unnecessary election, but they're still stuck as a minority government. Honestly though, as much as I dislike the conservatives, the liberals haven't been doing much better, and the NDP still haven't been able to establish enough credibility to be seen by Canadians as potential leaders. It might take a while before someone steps up who Canadians actually WANT to vote for, instead of choosing the lesser of two evils.