That was a very strange federal election we just had. While the Conservatives gained 16 seats, we still have a minority government, prompting many to wonder what the point was. Had it not been for the collapse of Wall Street, it might be remembered as the election about nothing.

It’s not often that members of the main Opposition party wait barely a week after election day to admit that they never really bought into their party’s platform, and then hustle their leader off into oblivion.

But, remarkably, there doesn’t seem to be much closure with the results of this election. It is just a prelude to the next one.

Let’s do some crystal-ball gazing on what is ahead, starting with the Conservatives.

Behind most successful political leaders are the shrewd chiefs of staff or Cardinal Richelieu types who are strategic manipulators, leaving their leaders free to be retail politicians. The former do the long-term thinking the leader doesn’t have time to do. Most important, they are always mean SOBs.

Stephen Harper, who also seems adept in the SOB department, has the distinction of being a political leader who has been his own chief of staff. In fact, the historians will probably argue for years whether Harper was actually a better Cardinal Richelieu than he was a prime minister.

Harper is a far better strategist than a tactician, which explains why, in times of sudden crisis, the prime minister initially looks like a deer in the headlights, then takes charge with a well thought-out plan.

The most recent example was the stock market meltdown late in the campaign. At first, all Harper could say was that it would be a good time to buy stock cheap. But by the end of the campaign, Harper and his finance minister seemed to have the situation well in hand, delivering well-executed plans.

So, with back-to-back minority governments, how long can a man who is clearly not a people person be a successful prime minister? Sure, his supporters can argue that he did manage to increase his party’s hold on power and begin to attract female voters.

But detractors can argue just as convincingly that Harper had a majority in his sights and let it slip away — and against an opponent who has had a charisma bypass.

What would have happened had the Tories been led by a retail politician instead of a backroom boy? You also have to wonder what will happen if the Liberals find a leader who catches the public imagination. Harper will miss not having Stéphane Dion to kick around anymore.

Over at Liberal Party headquarters, they must still be kicking themselves for making the same mistake the Tories did in 1976. That’s when leadership rivals Brian Mulroney and Claude Wagner knocked each other off, while an unknown from Yellowhead, Alta., came up the middle and became party leader — ultimately, to disastrous results.

A similar situation unfolded at the Liberal leadership convention in December 2006. This is why stories have started to appear in the media about Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff agreeing to make nice and support each other, regardless of how things turn out in the upcoming leadership race. This is the party’s way of telling people they are not going to make the same mistake again.

Dion wasn’t the first idealistic academic to get gored on Parliament Hill. But the fact that someone so inexperienced in politics could become party leader probably shows how much of a stupor the Liberals were in after the 2006 election.

The Liberals may be broke. They may be losing their grip on the ethnic vote. But, most important, they need to start functioning like a professional brokerage party again.

It was the Bloc Québécois that denied the Tories their majority. And we actually witnessed Gilles Duceppe going to Toronto to make a campaign speech. Duceppe appears to be the one party leader whose popularity actually rose across the country. With the Liberals replacing their leader, Duceppe will be the de facto Opposition leader.

This will be interesting.

The saddest story of this election might be that of NDP leader Jack Layton. He ran the best campaign and had many people convinced his party would supplant the Liberals as the official Opposition. But, in the end, the party was stuck in its perpetual trough of 14%-20% of the popular vote. This probably means the party is still a parking lot for left-of-centre votes when the Liberals can’t get their act together. And you have to ask when Layton will get discouraged. IE