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Liberals at a loss

The election that began with a whimper only to catch a huge orange wave, has ended with a crash – a Conservative majority.

The pollsters said one was still in reach for Harper and Co. but no one could really foresee, in an election of surprises, the complete collapse of the Liberal party. Somewhere Preston Manning is smiling. (Rob Ford maybe a little, too).

The Reformatories have their majority and they won it in Ontario on the backs of the Libs, whose vote has sunk to historic lows.

Michael ignatieff’s own seat in Etobicoke-Lakeshore was lost to a Conservative. For the first time in this country’s history, the Libs are not the governing party or the official opposition.

At Lib HQ in the bowels of the Sheraton, Ignatieff said he would stay on if the party would have him. He summoned the memory of Laurier and the great Liberal traditions, but that all seemed far away I the gloom of the room. The mood was something between shock and awe. A few of the old warhorses from election battles past showed to wave the flag. But the overwhelming feeling was of a party adrift.

Ignatieff spoke eloquently about democracy and the hard lessons it sometimes teaches us. The Lib leader also talked of how proud he felt to stand up and represent what he called the “vital middle” in Canadian politics. He sounded the most passionate he has all campaign. Too late.

This election might have been about the economy. Or, health care. Or, the climate change crisis. The Liberals wanted to make it into something more. They wanted to turn this election into a vote on Canadian values.

Somehow, those higher ideas got lost in the wash – before the Libs exited week one of the campaign, to be exact.

Iggy started out talking about the issues. The tone was being set for a discussion of ideals.

Politics is about choices. And in the early days of #elxn41, the Libs looked to beat the Cons at their own game by giving the electorate a clear choice between themselves and the Conservatives. No more Tory lite. The party’s platform echoed Trudeau.

The Libs had a line to run on in #elxn41, only the braintrust in the Liberal election war room, for reasons known only to them, quickly abandoned the middle road and went on the offensive.

Perhaps it was that stumble of Ignatieff’s in the debates when Layton nailed him on his attendance record in the House. Perhaps those ideas about democracy were too high falutin outside the Ottawa beltway. Whatever. The Grits weren’t getting the traction.

Soon enough the ads making Harper out to be the devil – in other words, the same old that didn’t work for the Grits in 2008 – began mucking up the airwaves. Those looking for an alternative to the negativity, breathed a collective sigh of defeat. So much for those Liberal ideas. The natural governing party, as they like to call themselves, offering more than just platitudes.

The Libs would have been better off sticking to the script. Jets, jails and corporate tax cuts. What happened to that? Or, the Family Pack? That education fund to help with tuition fees? The Libs had a plan. Or so it seemed.

There was no need to attack Harper, really. The PM was doing a pretty good job making himself look bad, having to fend off all manner of accusations of his contempt for democracy when he wasn’t hiding in that teleprompter-equipped bubble of his.

There were enough bombs going off in the Conservative camp, on a daily basis practically, for the Libs to turn into sound bites for the six o’clock news. I mean, being accused of stealing ballot boxes is about as low as it can get for any political party, especially in a democracy. Those are the Cons for ya.

Iggy isn’t completely blameless in this tragedy for the Libs. His leadership numbers were a harbinger of the destruction to come perhaps. A little part of him still thinks he’s smarter than the rest of us. But voters seemed willing to overlook that character flaw, according to polls in the early days of the race.

The Liberal leader was making a favourable impression early. Even the conservative Globe was moved to term the Liberal platform prudent and practical.

Iggy told Canadians to rise up. And they did, only it was for the other guy. So what happened? After all the toing and froing, beinding in whatever direction the political winds took them, the Libs couldn’t be believed anymore.

The irony is that the Libs should be handed such a rebuke by the electorate in the very election in which the party attempted to get back to its political roots.

No doubt, some in the Grit war room will read the results as a rejection of the party’s tack back to the centre. Party strategists would be making a mistake to think that. Look where the NDP are now.

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