The resignations of Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe in the wake of their stunning election losses were just two of the many remarkable and historic moments in the 2011 federal election.

Here’s a look at several of the more notable milestones:

• The Conservatives lost two cabinet ministers in Quebec ridings despite their strong majority: Lawrence Cannon as foreign minister and Jean-Pierre Blackburn as veteran affairs minister.

• Elizabeth May’s win in Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C., makes her Canada’ first Green MP.

• Ottawa waitress Ruth Ellen Brosseau, with a tenuous grasp of French, won in the rural Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinonge despite no campaign and a mid-April holiday in Las Vegas.

• Human rights advocate Irwin Cotler managed to hang on to Mount Royal, which has been comfortably Liberal since 1940. But with nowhere near his usual 56 per cent-plus majority.

• Brand-new Quebec New Democrat MPs, who make up half of the new official Opposition, will arrive in Ottawa with a wide range of backgrounds and not a lot of political experience. Among them: a freelance translator, a union adviser, a recent university grad who teaches high school drama, a community volunteer, an actor and musician, an agronomist and a rehab worker.

• Former Liberal party Leader Stephane Dion was among the few Liberals re-elected in Quebec, winning by a comfortable 5,778 votes.

• Hockey hero Ken Dryden, a veteran Liberal, fell to defeat at the hands of the Tories in York Centre in what he called the toughest campaign of his life.

• The Tories captured the South Asian vote they courted so relentlessly, trouncing Liberals in Don Valley West, Brampton West, Brampton-Springdale (where Ruby Dhalla lost) and Bramalea-Gore-Malton.

• Among the few Liberals still standing Tuesday morning in the GTA: Bob Rae in Toronto Centre, Carolyn Bennett in St. Paul’s for her sixth victory, Judy Sgro in York West and John McCallum in Markham-Unionville.

• Singer-songwriter Andrew Cash captured twice as many votes for the NDP in Davenport as Liberal Mario Silva.

• Thin majorities decided several GTA ridings, none thinner than Etobicoke Centre, where Tory Ted Opitz won just 22 more votes than Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj. In Scarborough Guildwood, Liberal John McKay won with 13,778 votes to Tory Chuck Konkel’s 13,178.

• Durham voters clearly forgave Bev Oda her document tampering. The Tory minister won by 18,880 votes.

• Tory International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan also won big in York Simcoe, with a more than 23,000 vote margin.

• Justin Trudeau fought off the orange surge in Quebec to win his Papineau riding by 4,327 votes.

• Vancouver South, where Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh only squeaked to victory in 2008, went Tory this time, electing Wai Young.

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• Promises of a hydroelectric plant and a road connecting Kivaliq with Manitoba helped lift Tory Leona Aglukkaq to victory by more than 1,700 votes in Nunavut.

• The hoped-for Conservative breakthrough in Newfoundland and Labrador translate into just one seat, won by 231 votes by Peter Penashue in Labrador riding.

• Veteran Liberal Scott Brison managed to hang on to Kings-Hants in Nova Scotia by less than 1,200 votes; Defence Minister Peter McKay defeated the New Democrat in Central Nova by more than 12,000 votes.

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