For the past few weeks, a team of citizen bloggers has been capturing the conversations in their communities during this election campaign -- and keeping us informed of what's really resonating with Canadians. Now that the election is over, the Your Take bloggers have been sending in their final posts and giving us a sense of how everything played out in their area. The following are some of the entries we'd like to highlight.   

By Cédric Levasseur-Laberge (Montreal)

I must confess something. This is the first time that I truly voted. During the federal and provincial elections of 2008, I was studying abroad under the palm trees of southern France, and got absentee ballots that I brought to school and filled under the eyes of my classmates, bewildered to be staring at a moment of foreign democracy. But then I was voting only because I thought voting was important - my riding always being safe for a party I did not intend to vote for.

By Philip Girvan (Antigonish, N.S.)

By Stephen A. Nelson (Jasper, Alta.)

Here in the Yellowhead, Conservative Rob Merrifield was re-elected - again getting about 77 per cent of the vote in the riding. He even seemed to be polling well in Green, progressive Jasper.