John Ivison: Conservatives used a meat grinder on the Liberals. They needed a wooden stake

National Post

01-05-2025

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But the ideas that formed the basis for the Liberal platform are mostly taken from Carney's book Value(s), which had input from Butts and policy advisor, Tim Krupa.
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As the prospect of a trade war with the United States crystallized, Butts began crafting the narrative that became 'Trump wants to break us so he can own us.'
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But the central concept of the Liberals' 'Canada Strong' slogan— that the country has to build a single market and explore trading opportunities elsewhere as a means of increasing leverage for a trade negotiation with Trump — is all Carney.
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It was Butts's job to turn that into a campaign narrative. He said he attended dozens of focus groups where voters rejected Poilievre, not because he was too like Trump, but because he was too inexperienced.
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That formed the basis for the ballot question the Liberals pushed: 'Is Pierre Poilievre the person you want sitting across the table from Donald Trump?'
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People who were motivated by their anxieties about a trade war invariably answered in the negative.
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But the Conservative agenda, as represented by its anti-establishment, pro-worker 'boots not suits' policy, resonated with people who were unhappy with the status quo and the prospect of a fourth Liberal term.
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They saw Poilievre as someone who would disrupt a system that wasn't working for them. The resilience of the Conservative vote on election night, particularly in blue-collar towns that hadn't voted Conservative in years like Sudbury and Stoney Creek in Ontario, suggests that the strategy wasn't entirely wrong.
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But even senior Conservatives concede that you can't build a winning coalition if you alienate women, boomers and university-educated voters.
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The Liberals succeeded in neutralizing many Conservative initiatives by adopting similar positions when it came to income tax cuts or promising more timely approvals for energy projects.
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By the time the campaigns hit Montreal for the leaders' debates, the election had settled into an uneasy stalemate. The Conservatives began to whittle away at the Liberal lead in steady increments, but one pollster estimated that at that rate, it would take until May 8th before they would catch up, well after election day.
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Poilievre needed an incendiary moment to blow up the Liberal trajectory and it looked as if he had one with Carney's platform, which promised $129 billion in new measures and deficits as far as the eye could see.
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Poilievre's problem was that he had yet to release his own platform, and when he did, it was almost as profligate, with $109 billion in new measures.
The only other occasion that threatened to derail the Carney Express was the horrific car-ramming attack in Vancouver. The incident opened the door for the Conservatives to talk about their safe-streets policies, but all sides were aware that politicizing the tragedy would result in a backlash.
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In the event, Caley, the campaign co-director, and former Vancouver mayor, Gregor Robertson, now a Liberal MP, were able to arrange for Carney to visit the site, alongside community members and B.C. Premier David Eby.
The Liberal campaign ended in Victoria, B.C., on Sunday night, three minutes before the election day cut-off.
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The result has proven to be much closer than the Liberals thought it would be. Internal projections were in the range of high-180, mid-190-seat range. It now looks like the Liberals have fallen short of 172 seat majority status, though recounts may take them above the current count of 169.
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There were Liberal reversals in places where the received wisdom suggested there would be successes because of the collapse of the NDP vote.
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In the Niagara region, for example, when Carney visited at the start of the final week, there were hopes the party would pick up an additional seat in Niagara Falls. On the night, they failed to win that seat from the Conservatives and lost Vance Badawey's seat of Niagara South to the Conservatives. This was the type of border community that 'should' have voted Liberal.
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The Liberals gained 2.8 million new voters in this election, while the Conservatives added 2.2 million.
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The national turnout was nearly five percentage points higher than the last election, adding two million voters from 2021.
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But one of the stories of the night was the demise of the smaller parties. The NDP lost 1.8 million voters, the Greens lost 158,000 and the People's Party a whopping 702,000, compared to 2021.
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Voters, it turns out, have minds of their own and a large number of former NDP supporters appear to have switched to the Conservatives.
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The collapse of all the minor opposition parties, bar the Bloc Québécois, will have serious implications for future elections, particularly for the one party that needs smaller, progressive parties to draw votes from the Liberals.
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Poilievre and his team ran a disciplined and well-oiled campaign. But voters ultimately rejected the Conservative leader (literally, in the case of his former constituents in Carleton), while buying Carney's pitch for stability with moderate change.
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But in large part, the 45th general election was over before it started, with the demolition of Trudeau and Singh.