In the newly elected Parliament of Canada, Prime Minister Martin's Liberals have 135 seats. That's 20 seats short of the 155 needed for a majority. Normally, when the Liberals don't have a majority, they count on the support of the NDP, but this time, the NDP only got 19, so even then they're one seat short.

One independent was elected to the parliament last week, Chuck Cadman, of British Columbia. Since most party MPs aren't allowed to vote against their own party, Chuck is a very valuable wild card to both the Liberals and the opposition. If, for example the NDP and the Liberals voted "yes" on some bill, and the Bloc and Conservatives voted "no," the vote would be 154 to 153. If Chuck then voted with the Bloc / Conservatives, the vote would be a tie, which counts as a failure, and Paul could be forced into the whole non-confidence vote thing with new elections and so forth.

Or not! It's all up to Chuck!