Why the Liberals lost and where should they go from here.

[kEiThZ]

This is (in my most humble opinion) the best piece I've read on where the Liberals went wrong and what they do going forward:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/silver-powers/

So what do all of you think? Why did the Liberals lose? And where should they go from here.

Personally, I was stunned by what seemed like a clueless strategy to me. The Liberals talked about health care and daycare when it seemed to me like most Canadians were probably concerned about the economy and jobs. I think their leftward shift cost them.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

the liberals need a spotless leader. but unfortunately, being spotless usually brings with it inexperience which its self will be attacked. if the liberals can't have the perfect leader, they need a leader who can not only defend its self but one who fights back hard & is not boring.

also, their message needs to change from vote for us or else you'll get the conservatives to vote for us because this is how were are better than everyone else.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Today we are all shocked that the Liberals only have 33 or so seats but, in hindsight, I'm actually surprised they don't have even fewer. Who are Liberal voters anymore? They used to be able to count on middle class Ontario families in the manufacturing belt (significantly eroded since globalization, now Conservative), old money (jumped ship to Conservatives) and new Canadians (poached equally by the Conservatives and the NDP). Even Anglophone Montreal, which was a sure thing, has become NDP. Anyone who came of age since Paul Martin has essentially observed a rudderless centrist party with few ideas. I voted Liberal in this election only to stop the conservatives in my riding (this would prove to be futile) during the advance polls. Had I known that the NDP would come in second, I would've voted for them and I suspect that a lot of Liberal voters were just people who went to the advanced polls to stop the Conservatives, unaware of a very late NDP surge.

The Liberals are also running two unpopular provincial governments that are beyond their expiry date (Ontario and Quebec), in BC they are mired by the HST scandal and are considered to be a right wing party and in Alberta they never mattered. We're also becoming a more polarized society thanks to the internet/social media and globalization essentially killing the middle class, so we're bound to have a government that's split between the populist left and the populist right.

I'm not very optimistic about the future of the Federal Liberal party. They could become a "thinking man's party" of pragmatic centrist academics and intellectuals, like the British Liberal Democratic Party of yore, but that'll relegate them to pariah status.

 

[Observer Walt]

I think there are some dark days ahead for the Liberal Party. They are in a really deep hole which it will take some digging to get out of. I agree with this commentator that they can't rely on past glories or accomplishments of past leaders, nor could they rely on warmed-over NDP policy.

More importantly in the short term I really don't see who a new leader could be. Several prominent Libs were defeated (Gerard Kennedy for example). Justin Trudeau? He has one term of prior experience, and fairly or unfairly the Trudeau name would be a handicap anywhere west of Ontario. Bob Rae? Write off much of Ontario, where Rae days etc. are still remembered.

It iwll take them a decade at least to rebuild. With time, it can be done. Ask the Conservatives, who were almost wiped out in 1993, but a n new updated version of that party is now poised to be in power for several years more (IMO).

 

[Mongo]

Ask the Conservatives, who were almost wiped out in 1993, but a n new updated version of that party is now poised to be in power for several years more (IMO).

I myself do not consider the federal Conservatives to be descended from the Progressive Conservative party. The old centre-right party of Bob Stanfield and Joe Clark is gone, it died in 1993. Instead, the current Conservative party is a direct continuation of the far-right Reform party, with much the same leadership cadre, and much the same policies. The "merger" between the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance was more in the way of a takeover, with little more than the name coming from the Progressive Conservatives.

 

[spider]

What best to do with the remains of the Liberal Party of Canada?

Nothing would be my guess. What is it good for, nothing, as assessed last night by the electorate. Just let them fade away.

They characterise themselves as a party of the middle, a euphemism for wishy washy in a world that doesn't have time for wishy washy. Stuff is happening right now that must be dealt with right now without being strained through the filter of what would a former leader of a hundred years ago would have thought.. The Liberals have no platform beyond what they think might attract votes and those principles can turn on a dime if necessary. Their candidates introduce themselves as Liberals and that is all we really have to know since they are the Natural Governing Party, at least in their dreams.

Pick up your marbles and go home Liberals, the world is moving way too fast for your mushy consensus seeking style to help anyone but yourselves.

 

[kEiThZ]

I myself do not consider the federal Conservatives to be descended from the Progressive Conservative party. The old centre-right party of Bob Stanfield and Joe Clark is gone, it died in 1993. Instead, the current Conservative party is a direct continuation of the far-right Reform party, with much the same leadership cadre, and much the same policies. The "merger" between the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance was more in the way of a takeover, with little more than the name coming from the Progressive Conservatives.

I'm ambivalent on this viewpoint. Yes, the leadership was derived from the rump of the old Reform/Alliance party. However, the policy core hasn't been all that far from the old PC party. If it stays this way, the Conservatives will remain in power for a long time.

 

[kEiThZ]

I think the biggest thing has to be getting a vision. Right now the party sales pitch reads, "We're the Liberals bitches! Vote for us or you'll get that punk ass Harper!" That only works if people really dislike Harper. Which is just not true for a lot of people. Certainly, they may not dislike Harper enough to discount the Conservatives.

 

[nfitz]

I myself do not consider the federal Conservatives to be descended from the Progressive Conservative party.

Their descension isn't really important. Essentially these are the same people - those that are to the right of the Liberals. Though I guess it also includes Social Credit now.

 

[adma]

More importantly in the short term I really don't see who a new leader could be. Several prominent Libs were defeated (Gerard Kennedy for example). Justin Trudeau? He has one term of prior experience, and fairly or unfairly the Trudeau name would be a handicap anywhere west of Ontario. Bob Rae? Write off much of Ontario, where Rae days etc. are still remembered.

Domenic LeBlanc?

 

[GenerationW]

Justin Trudeau? He has one term of prior experience, and fairly or unfairly the Trudeau name would be a handicap anywhere west of Ontario.

His endorsement did absolutely nothing for George Smitherman. Justin Trudeau is far from a sure thing.

 

[LAz]

The Liberals are a has been party. They're worthless. And always were. No offense to anyone, but they just had this coming to them.

For now, the best I could suggest to them is to support a proportional representation system. That way they won't have only ~10% of the seats with ~20% of the votes.

 

[Peepers]

In answer to the question "why the Liberals lost" the Globe & Mail analyzed the results and confirmed what many people feared would happen - vote splitting - caused by the unexplainable surge of the NDP - handed Harper his majority

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...tories-ontario-and-a-majority/article2009158/

The NDP "victory" is really a hollow one. Before the election the NDP had some influence over a minority Harper government. In the new government Layton's influence will be zero. The fact that the NDP is the official opposition is not really much of an accomplishment when you consider the fringe parties that have held that position in the past, the Bloc, Reform and Alliance have held this spot in the past.

 

[kEiThZ]

^ That also says that the Tories would have won anyway.

Personally, what I find offensive in this whole thread of thought about the split left is the idea that all Liberal voters would have automatically voted for single left party.

That's BS. I've voted Green as a protest vote. I've voted Liberal most often. And I voted Conservative once. I've haven't yet seen a reason to vote NDP. And I suspect, (with the exception of my Green ways), most Canadians are a lot like me. All those screaming that 60% voted against Harper (or that he doesn't have a real majority because only 40% voted for him) are being very, very presumptuous.

 

[Eug]

^ That also says that the Tories would have won anyway.

...albeit with a minority, which is what I suspect most of us expected.

Personally, what I find offensive in this whole thread of thought about the split left is the idea that all Liberal voters would have automatically voted for single left party.

That's BS. I've voted Green as a protest vote. I've voted Liberal most often. And I voted Conservative once. I've haven't yet seen a reason to vote NDP. And I suspect, (with the exception of my Green ways), most Canadians are a lot like me. All those screaming that 60% voted against Harper (or that he doesn't have a real majority because only 40% voted for him) are being very, very presumptuous.

If based just on the record while in power, I might just have considered voting for Harper, but what keeps me back is his Reform roots. In the early days of Reform, they made me quite uncomfortable. Quite a bit further right than the current Tories.

If I lived in her riding, I might just have voted for Elizabeth May... and I'm not a big fan of the Green Party (as may be obvious by my posts here).

I've also voted for Olivia Chow before, but that's when she was running for City Council.