The stroopwafel turns ...

The Dutch ... in the mix.

The good:

With 88 per cent of the votes counted, published partial results showed the Liberals with 31 and Labour on 30.

But the real victory went to Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV), which demands an end to immigration from Muslim countries and a ban on new mosques. The PVV took its number of seats from nine in the last parliament to 24, and could hope to enter a coalition government.

How is this coming from a politician?

The far-right leader with his distinctive shock of fair hair called the result "magnificent".

"The impossible has happened," he told a televised party gathering. "We are the biggest winner today. The Netherlands chose more security, less crime, less immigration and less Islam."

Remember - this election took place because of AFG.

Here is the bad,

After the Christian Democrats plummeted to a historic low, outgoing leader Jan Peter Balkenende resigned his position as party leader and said he was quitting politics - though he also said he would stay on as caretaker prime minister until a new coalition was formed.

The party won 21 seats, 20 fewer than at the last election in 2006.

Mr Balkenende described his party's crushing election defeat as "disappointing".

"The outcome is clear. I've told the president of our party that I will be resigning as party leader and that I won't be serving as a member of parliament," he said.

The election - the fourth since 2002 - was called after the centrist coalition government, between the Christian Democrats and the Labour Party, collapsed in February.

The government fell when Labour withdrew from the coalition after refusing to extend the Dutch contribution to the Nato force, as outgoing PM Balkenende wanted.

Dutch troops are therefore expected to leave Afghanistan by August.

Dutch out the door; Canadians next year. Together, that is a brigade worth of relatively caveat free maneuver forces heading for the door.

Ponder.