The Liberal Downfall

[STEFROCKS]

I believe the Libs have suffered another cycle of arrogance, corruption, incompetence, and promise breaking. The same malaise that hit the last Conservative government, and the liberals before that, and the conservatives this time around. And all because there are people out there who are so partisan that they don't care if a better candidate comes along in their riding they will vote for a party. And a party will come to rely on that blind stupidity to protect them from the law, ethics commissioners, and the voters in the next election. Cycles keep going around and around but their is only one party on the wheel. ... it is the libcons.

I am a little dissapointed before the results even come in.

Do any of you even do research into any party or come to an conclusion on your own without the help of the media (Sun newspapers specifically) why cannot you people come to an informed decision on things and vote for the person who is best suited to for the position instead of looking at what party they represent, but no, just because they are a liberal or an NDP they are not suited, and just vote the way you do all the other times because you are sheep, so why bother looking exactly at the candidates and what they stand for I am not going to vote for him or her because they represent this party, that is such bull shit, some of the conservatives that got elected was because the dumb asses cannot see fit to look at the other candidates and make an informed unbiased decision and just vote conservative because they always done so, that is such crap...

the reason for the liberal loss was because they did not come out with fresh ideas, they should of had Paul Martin himself doning comercials, like the ones they had running the last three days of the election stating his beliefs the parties beliefs and their platform, but they did not... the sponsorship scandal only hurt them in Quebec, period, it did not affect me at all and besides that, his government was not responsible for it, Chretian's was... and you conservatives on here talk about the attack ads, I see, they do it to the liberals and it is ok, but when the liberals do it to them, they are attacking the conservatives, but their ads were not attacking the liberals, I see... Paul Martin was on the defensive because the other parties put him on the defensive and he could not get his platform accross because of it... all the other stuff had nothing to do with it, they made the mistake by using scare tactics which worked once, but they never worked twice, and they should of brought out a fresh platform and some new ideas reguardless, that is what lost them their government, and for that person who says the americans do not understand us is crap, they do understand us and resent us for not joining their little war in Iraq, maybe you should look at this page and see how they talk about us to know that they do not like us.

http://www.intheirownwords.ca/harper.html

[tml12]

You show an unbelievable amount of ignorace to this political campaign.

Screw corruption right because Mulrooney was corrupt, eh?

You think the reason the Liberals lost was because they didn't put up fresh ideas?

If these are the people who vote Liberal, it couldn't be more clear why they lost...

[Spike22]

I read each of the parties platforms and if the level of effort from the Liberals platform is any indication it is no wonder they lost. The NDP's and ther Green Party was was pretty good and the Conservatives too. They addressed more than the liberals, The liberals siimply stated how good they were fiscally. There was little if anything else on crime, taxes, etc. A very poor effort that any grade 12 student could have done 100% better.

[Trudeau Enthusiast]

I believe the fact that Paul Martin is, to put it crudely, a greasy bastard -probably aided in his loss. Hopefully in the coming years the Liberals will clean up, the Conservatives will botch up, and we will have a Liberal majority under a more proper leader --- Martin always seemed to me a right-winger in a Liberal's clothing anyway.

[tml12]

I believe the fact that Paul Martin is, to put it crudely, a greasy bastard -probably aided in his loss. Hopefully in the coming years the Liberals will clean up, the Conservatives will botch up, and we will have a Liberal majority under a more proper leader --- Martin always seemed to me a right-winger in a Liberal's clothing anyway.

I never disliked Paul Martin and I still don't.

But to have a REAL conservative in power is best of all.

[normanchateau]

I think Martin's defeat had relatively little to do with anything that Martin or Harper did. Enough people simply wanted a change and were tired of the Liberals. Sure other factors played some role but I believe that a desire for change was paramount. In any event, it was not exactly a revolutionary shift in voter preference. The Liberals dropped nation-wide by 6.5% from where there were in the last election while the Conservatives went up by 6.7% from where they were in the last election. Most of us voted as we had in 2004.

History tends to repeat itself. Lester Pearson was elected as Liberal PM because enough people were tired of Diefenbaker. Joe Clark was elected as Conservative PM because enough people were tired of Trudeau. Brian Mulroney was elected as Conservative PM because enough people were once again tired of Trudeau. Jean Chretien was elected as Liberal PM because enough people were tired of Mulroney. Another Liberal will be elected when people tire of Harper. If it doesn't happen in the next election, it will happen in the subsequent one.

[wellandboy]

The Liberals ran their entire campaign based upon fear and innuendo. From their earliest campaign ads showing a tank and and a handgun through to the now infamous series of 12 ads, there was an inference of what might happen if the Conservatives won. Only in the dying days of the campaign did they use Martin as the focal point of their campaign, which by that time I believe Canadians had difficulty in connecting with the man. He had allowed himself to be portrayed as a frustrated and frenzied man waving his arms about because he couldn't articulate to Canadians why they should vote for him.

Coupled with a dismal platform, both in substance and delivery, the Liberals fell back on what had worked for them in the past.

The Conservatives, NDP, Bloq and the Greens talked about issues, but most of all hope. That, I believe is the biggest difference between winning and losing,

[normanchateau]

The Conservatives, NDP, Bloq and the Greens talked about issues, but most of all hope. That, I believe is the biggest difference between winning and losing,

Yes, the BQ talked about issues but their percentage of the vote actually declined. Quebecers, like most Canadians, wanted a change so voted CPC at the expense of both the BQ and Liberals.

[wellandboy]

The Conservatives, NDP, Bloq and the Greens talked about issues, but most of all hope. That, I believe is the biggest difference between winning and losing,

Yes, the BQ talked about issues but their percentage of the vote actually declined. Quebecers, like most Canadians, wanted a change so voted CPC at the expense of both the BQ and Liberals.

That's a fair assessment of the Bloq decline. At the beginning of the campaign, Quebec saw too few alternatives to the Liberals, hence the Bloq became their only choice. When Harper presented an alternative to the Liberal from the Federalist side they shifted.