Oh, come on. Do we really have to go through this again, Canada? (And specifically, Canadian media outlets, all of whom should, by this point, know better?)

On Tuesday night, Prince Edward Island voters elected 12 Progressive Conservatives, eight Greens and six Liberals, filling a total of 26 seats in the legislature, with one set to remain vacant for the next few months due to the sudden — and tragic — death of Green hopeful Josh Underhay just days before the election.

And while it is absolutely 100 per cent accurate to say that the Progressive Conservatives won the most seats, the same basic math makes it clear that 12 seats is not a majority, and that at the moment, PC Leader Dennis King cannot claim — not, that is, with certainty — that he’ll be able to command the confidence of the House.

In fact, as armchair parliamentary strategists are undoubtedly already making a concerted effort to point out, it’s not even a guarantee that King and his PC team will get the first chance to form government, as traditionally, the incumbent is given the opportunity to prove that he or she can carry on, although given the dismal showing by the Liberals — whose own leader lost his seat to the Tory blue wave — it’s doubtful they’ll want to delay the inevitable.

As it stands, however, even if a non-Progressive Conservative is chosen to serve as speaker — which, as is the case in the House of Commons, is decided by secret ballot — the opposition parties would still collectively control a majority of votes.

That could change if the Progressive Conservatives were to win the eventual byelection in Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park, but only to set up what would effectively be a permanent tie, with the speaker tasked with casting the deciding vote.

The Progressive Conservatives could, of course, negotiate a deal with one of the other two parties to support the government on confidence issues — which, in a minority setting, usually means budgets and other money votes, as well as the Speech from the Throne, as it is viewed as a general vote of approval on the government’s legislative plan.

That could mean anything from offering cabinet spots to members of the other party to agreeing to implement one or more of the party’s proposed initiatives. (In this particular case, that could very well mean launching yet another bid to switch from first-past-the-post to proportional representation, which is a priority for the Greens and supported, albeit not quite as adamantly, by the Liberals .)

UPDATE: That’ll teach this Process Nerd not to triple-check provincial support for electoral reform! As Twitter was swift to remind me, on the Island, it’s actually the Progressive Conservatives and the Greens that back PR, while the Liberals (or, at least, the soon-to-be-former premier) would prefer to stick with FPTP.

Alternately, the Progressive Conservatives could proceed without a formal coalition deal, and attempt to secure the necessary votes on a case-by-case basis, which is pretty much how the federal Conservatives managed to govern as a minority from 2006 until 2011.

At the same time, Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker is free to reach out to the Liberals to see if they’d be interested in temporarily joining forces to challenge the PCs for control of the legislature.

That, however, would probably require a more detailed, written agreement laying out the parameters of the arrangement, simply to give the lieutenant-governor — who would, of course, be involved in negotiating the opening steps — at least some confidence (no pun intended) that the two sides will be able to work together.

Finally, there’s always the possibility that one or more newly elected MLAs could be persuaded to cross the floor — from the Greens to the PCs, the Liberals to the Greens or even from the PCs to one of the other two parties, which could also change the numbers.

While it’s undeniably true that none of the above scenarios make for as neat and tidy a headline as “PCs win minority government,” that’s just life in a parliamentary democracy, and it’s well past time for those charged with conveying such developments to the public to accept it — and, indeed, to welcome it as part of our Westminsterian heritage.

Also, let’s face it: “PCs set to win the most seats as minority parliament looms” has a nice ring to it while also having the virtue of being correct.

(And don’t even get Process Nerd started on “premier-elect”.)