CON 167 NDP 102 LIB 34 BQ 4 GRN 1

MAJORITY RULES
‘Because Canadians chose hope, we can now begin to come
together again, as we must, as Canadians, as fellow citizens,
friends and neighbours.’
— Prime Minister Stephen Harper accepts his majority mandate in Calgary on May 2.

Designed by Jessie Willms.

ELECTION 41

Canadians
choose change
for 41st
Parliament
Tue, May 3, 2011
Kathleen Harris
Choosing historic change over status quo,
Canadian voters have handed the Conser-
vatives a majority government and given
the NDP its first crack at Official Opposi-
tion.
Canada’s electorate dramatically altered
the parliamentary landscape by sidelining
the Liberals, kicking out all but four mem-
bers of the Bloc Quebecois, and sending
the very first Green Party MP to the House
of Commons.
Michael Behiels, a professor of political
history at the University of Ottawa, called
the outcome “a major transformation.” But
the unprecedented victory for Jack Lay-
ton’s NDP may wield little influence over
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s agenda
in the end.
“Now that he has a majority, it doesn’t re-
ally matter whether they’re NDPs or Lib-
erals in opposition,” Behiels told iPolitics.
“He has control over the Senate, so the op-
position will be screaming and hollering,
but there’s not a lot they can do. With a
majority, he will push his agenda and leg-
islation without any need to compromise
on anything.”
One major change Behiels expects will
come with a Harper majority government
is a decentralization that will give more
funding and decision-making powers to
the provinces.
Harper achieved his majority mandate
with a big breakthrough in Ontario, pick-
ing up 11 more seats than in 2008 and
making critical penetration in the former
fortress of Toronto. Behiels said Conserva-
tive inroads in key parts of Ontario means
Harper will be forced to shuffle a bit to the
middle to keep his caucus happy.
“Now that Ontario is so heavily in
there, I think the so-cons (social conser-
vatives) will be held at bay,” he said. “A
lot of those winning seats in the urban
areas will be more moderate conserva-
tives. This may move him slightly more
to the centre now that he has more mem-
bers coming from Atlantic Canada and
Ontario. Compromises will be made in
caucus and cabinet to accommodate a lot
of the social issues.”
In Calgary, Harper was humble in ac-
cepting his majority mandate, praising
his opponents and promising to represent
all of Canada’s regions and citizens — no
matter how they cast their ballots.
“At the end of it all, Canadians made this
critically important decision today … they
chose hope, unity of purpose and a strong
Canada,” he told the cheering throngs of
supporters as tears streamed down the face
of his wife Laureen. “And because Canadi-
ans chose hope, we can now begin to come
together again, as we must, as Canadians,
as fellow citizens, friends and neighbours.
For our part, we are intensely aware that
we are, and we must be, the government of
all Canadians – including those who did
not vote for us.”
Conservative Sen. Marjory LeBreton,
who travelled on Harper’s tour, said secur-
ing a majority will allow the government to
carry out long-term planning without the
“guillotine” of an election threat hanging
ELECTION 41
overhead. Key priorities will be passing the
budget and leftover criminal justice legis-
lation, she said.
The NDP wave in Quebec means dozens
of rookie parliamentarians will occupy
seats in the Commons. And while the NDP
surge putting the boot to the Bloc Quebe-
cois is a good thing for Canada, LeBreton
noted it also reduced the Conservative
count in the province to six – five less than
in 2008.
“That’s a disappointment, but in no
way will it affect the way the government
handles issues in Quebec. We’ll have good
cabinet representation,” she said.
Harper promised to get back to work
soon, and while the new dynamics take
shape inside the fresh Parliament, party
politics will also be at play outside the
Commons. Gilles Duceppe quit as Bloc
leader last night and Liberal Leader Mi-
chael Ignatieff, who offered to stay on to
help rebuild the party after leading it to
crushing defeat, may be next to go.
Layton, who had limped out of the cam-
paign gate but sprinted to a record-setting
finish, extended an olive branch to Harper,
offering to work together in the best in-
terests of Canadian families and to foster
a respectful, positive House of Commons.
But he vowed to press for the priorities of
the NDP: reducing poverty, tackling cli-
mate change and repositioning Canada as
a peacemaker around the world.
“I’ve always favoured proposition over
opposition, but we will oppose the govern-
ment when it’s off track,” he said.
ELECTION 41
Stars who
won’t be back
on the Hill
Tue, May 3, 2011
Janice Tibbetts
Take a look at the next Parliament and
who won’t be walking the halls of the Hill.
No Michael Ignatieff, no Gilles Duceppe.
Gone too are four Conservative cabinet
ministers, hockey legend Ken Dryden and
vocal opposition critics Mark Holland and
Ujjal Dosanjh.
They are among about a dozen well-
known incumbents who lost their seats
Monday night, victims of the massive shift
to the NDP, the collapse of the Bloc Que-
becois, and the dramatic drop in Liberal
fortunes.
iPolitics.ca has compiled a list of high-
profile former Parliamentarians whom
voters rejected, some to nobody’s surprise
and others to everbody’s shock:
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff: This is
a story that none of the political pundits
or seat projectors saw coming. The Lib-
eral leader was one of the many casualties
as the party’s fortress Toronto suffered a
critical blow. Consultant Bernard Trottier
claimed Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding in
the Toronto suburbs, stealing it from the
Liberal leader after he won handy victories
in 2006 and 2008.
Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe:
The party leader was one of the dozens of
incumbents who fell victim to the Bloc’s
decimation in Quebec, losing to New
Democrat Hélene Laverdiere. Duceppe
was first elected in Laurier-St.-Marie in a
1990 by-election. His defeat 21 years later
followed a victory by a massive margin of
15,000 votes in 2008. Pundits, who started
to speculate about Duceppe’s ouster in the
waning hours of the election campaign,
say that he ran a lacklustre campaign in
his Montreal constituency.
Cabinet minister Lawrence Cannon: In
the Pontiac riding just across the river
from Ottawa, the dramatic ascent of NDP
fortunes in Quebec claimed Canada’s for-
eign affairs minister. The Conservative
heavyweight was defeated by come-lately
New Democrat Mathieu Ravignat, a ka-
rate teacher and social science researcher
who was nominated just two weeks ago.
Cannon, who took a mid-campaign break
to attend Libya talks oversees, had held
this largely rural riding since 2006. How-
ever, NDP support in the neighbouring
ridings of Hull-Aylmer and Gatineau had
a spillover effect.
Cabinet minister Josée Verner: The in-
tergovernmental affairs minister in the
Harper cabinet, Verner lost her Quebec
City seat of Louis-Saint-Laurent to Al-
exandrine Latendresse, a young and un-
known New Democrat. There was specu-
lation in the late days of the campaign
that Verner was vulnerable and she failed
to survive the massive swing to the left.
Verner’s defeat came after she won her rid-
ing by 10,000 votes in 2008.
Cabinet minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn:
The veterans affairs minister in the Harp-
er cabinet fought a losing three-way battle
with the Bloc and the NDP. In the end, he
lost his Jonquiere-Alma seat to New Dem-
ocrat Claude Patry, a union boss and 35-
year veteran of the Alcan plant. The riding
was once held by former Bloc leader Luc-
ien Bouchard and Blackburn seized it by a
narrow margin in 2006, winning a bigger
victory in 2008.
Liberal Mark Holland: The Liberal critic
on public safety and one of the most vo-
cal MPs on the opposition benches was
bumped off by Conservative star candi-
date Chris Alexander, a former ambassa-
dor to Afghanistan. Dubbed the Liberal
“attack dog” on all things law and order,
Holland took on the Harper government
on everything from prison building to G8
security spending. The fact that he was a
home-town boy was not enough to save
this scrappy 36-year-old in the Toronto
exurb riding of Ajax-Pickering.
Liberal Ken Dryden: The NHL hockey
legend saw 50 years of consecutive Lib-
eral victories in the Toronto riding of York
Centre slip away, losing the seat to Con-
servative Mark Adler. Dryden, a cabinet
minister in the Paul Martin cabinet, had
been attacked by his opponents for be-
ing absent in the riding between elections
and skipping too many votes in the House
of Commons in recent years. He saw his
vote share diminish steadily in each of the
last four elections. The constituency has a
large Jewish population, and the Harper
government’s strong support of Israel was
considered to be a factor against Dryden.
Liberal Joe Volpe: The former immigra-
tion minister in the Paul Martin govern-
ment, Volpe held the Liberal stronghold
of Eglinton-Lawrence since 1988. Volpe
was defeated by Joe Oliver, a lawyer and
businessman whom Volpe beat by a barely
comfortable 2,000 votes in 2008. The To-
ronto constituency was one of several 416
seats to fall to Conservative challengers,
given the party its first breakthrough in
Toronto since 1988. Volpe, while credited
with being a workhorse for his constitu-
ency, was a casualty of a defection of tra-
ditional Liberal voters, mainly Jewish and
Italian, to the Conservatives.
Independent Helena Guergis: This feisty
former Conservative cabinet, running
as an independent after Prime Minister
Stephen Harper kicked her out of caucus,
didn’t come anywhere near her Conserva-
tive challenger Kellie Leitch, a physician
and former Order of Canada recipient.
In fact, Guergis didn’t even finish second
in Simcoe-Grey, after winning handily in

2008. In the end, the Conservative name
prevailed and the party did not pay a price
for ousting Guergis, for what turned out to
be unfounded criminal allegations.
Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh: Another vocal crit-
ic who relentlessly took the Harper gov-
ernment to task over what it knew about
Afghanistan torture, among other things.
B.C.’s former NDP premier, Dosanjh lost
his Vancouver South riding in a tight race
against Conservative Wei Young, whom
he beat by only 22 votes in 2008. The Con-
servatives have paid a lot of attention to
this ethnically diverse constituency, in
part because the election outcome is con-
sidered to be an indication of the party’s
support among Chinese Canadians.
Cabinet minister Gary Lunn: Another
cabinet minister in the Harper govern-
ment, Lunn was unseated by Elizabeth
May, giving the Green party its first MP
in Canadian history. A longtimer from the
Reform days, Lunn fell after winning the
riding by 2,000 votes in 2008. Many pun-
dits were predicting Lunn’s return to Ot-
tawa, in the face of dwindling Green sup-
port nationwide. However, May managed
to capture enough votes from traditional
NDP and Liberal supporters to comfort-
ably secure the seat.
ELECTION 41
Liberal Ruby Dhalla: Her riding of
Brampton-Springdale became a fierce
battleground between the Liberals and
Conservatives in their bids to dominate
new and rapidly growing constituencies
in the Toronto suburbs. Harper kicked
off his campaign in Brampton and
Ignatieff stopped in to help try to defend
the constituency from Parm Gill, the
Conservative victor.
Dhalla first captured the riding in 2004
and she was a well-known MP who made
headlines two years ago when a former
nanny alleged she was exploited in the
family household. A court case remains
unsettled.
ELECTION 41

NDP tsunami
devastates Bloc
Wed, Apr 6, 2011
Elizabeth ThompsoN
The much-anticipated NDP wave washed
over Quebec Monday night, creating a
dramatic sea change in the politics in that
province.
A party which had only ever elected one
MP from Quebec in a general election in
its history, swept across Quebec winning
58 of the province’s 75 seats. The Liberals
were reduced to seven seats and the Con-
servatives six. The once dominant Bloc
Québécois was almost wiped off the elec-
toral map, managing to salvage only four
ridings.
A desire by Quebecers for change coupled
with NDP Leader Jack Layton’s personal
popularity and the NDP’s careful position-
ing of itself as an attractive alternative for
Quebec’s soft nationalist voters appears to
be at the heart of the historic result.
However, it may be too soon to know
whether Monday’s election results signal a
realignment of the federalist-sovereignist
divide that has dominated federal politics
in Quebec for the past 20 years.
The results are a devastating blow for the
Bloc – at least in the short term. It lost its
leader after Gilles Duceppe lost his seat and
resigned. It also lost its official party status
in the House of Commons along with the
budgets and resources that come with it.
Duceppe has so dominated the party
since he became leader that there is no ob-
vious successor.
In the longer term, however, a majority
right wing Conservative government with
little representation from Quebec coupled
with an official opposition full of rookie
Quebec MPs could potentially provide the
sovereignist movement with the winning
conditions it has been seeking for years.
While the Bloc has been decimated, the
more important goal for the sovereignist
movement has always been forming the
government in Quebec and setting the
stage for a referendum. A recent Léger
Marketing poll showed Pauline Marois’
Parti Québécois with a comfortable lead
over Premier Jean Charest’s Liberals by 38
per cent to 31 per cent.
A key challenge for NDP Leader Jack
Layton and his Quebec lieutenant Thomas
Mulcair in coming weeks will be dealing
with a very large, and in many cases very
young, contingent of new NDP MPs from
Quebec.
For example, the NDP wave was so strong
that it even swept into office an NDP can-
didate who took off on a Las Vegas vaca-
tion in the middle of the campaign.
Ruth Ellen Brosseau, an assistant man-
ager of a Carleton University pub who has
difficulty speaking French, is the new MP
for the riding of the very French-speaking
riding of Berthier-Maskinongé east of
Montreal.
In some cases, people who only a few
weeks ago were writing final exams for
university will now be members of Parlia-
ment with salaries of $157,731.
Only two members of the NDP’s Quebec
caucus have any experience as MPs – Mul-
cair and Françoise Boivin, a former Liberal
MP who won the riding of Gatineau. A
handful of others such as Romeo Saganash
ELECTION 41
of the Grand Council of the Cree have had
experience in political arenas.
What remains of the Conservative’s Que-
bec caucus has more experience and three
have served as cabinet ministers – Chris-
tian Paradis, Denis Lebel and Maxime Ber-
nier. However, it will be difficult for six MPs
to carry much weight in a 167-member
caucus dominated by Ontario and Alberta.
The Liberals, already diminished in pre-
vious elections have been reduced to seven
seats – all of them in very anglophone and
allophone areas of Montreal. But not even
the Liberal party’s last Quebec bastion
of Montreal was safe. Key players in the
Liberal party’s Quebec caucus like Mar-
lene Jennings and Pablo Rodriguez were
washed away in the NDP wave.
Former astronaut Marc Garneau
squeaked through in Westmount-Ville
Marie by a few hundred votes after a see-
saw battle throughout the evening with the
NDP.
Among those left, two are potential can-
didates for the future leadership of the
party – Denis Coderre and Justin Trudeau
who actually increased his margin of vic-
tory.
While many Liberals were still in shock
Monday night, Trudeau took heart in the
fact that Quebecers had opted for a party
that was both progressive and federalist.
Trudeau said the challenge for Liberals
now is to rebuild.
“I think the party has to focus one of the
things that worked well here which is lead-
ership from the ground up.”
ELECTION 41

#Elxn41: From
campaign stop
to photo op...

It it time
for pollsters
to question
themselves?
Tues., May 3, 2011
Janice Tibbetts
It wasn’t exactly a stellar night for Cana-
da’s pollsters and seat projectors.
The main polling firms underestimated
Conservative strength, with none pro-
jecting Prime Minister Stephen Harper
would handily secure his coveted major-
ity government.
While pollsters accurately tapped into
the dramatic rise of the NDP, they failed
to correctly measure Conservative sup-
port of 40 per cent. Those who took the
extra step of venturing into seat projec-
tions, missed the mark.
“I totally blew the final CPC strength
and missed the majority,” acknowledged
EKOS president Frank Graves.
“Well, that didn’t go well,” Eric Grenier,
of the seat projection site threehundre-
deight.com, wrote on his website. He was
significantly off base in his predictions,
low-balling the Conservatives and New
Democrats and significantly over-esti-
mating the Bloc Québécois and Liberals.
Graves attributed his miscalculations
— also experienced by several other poll-
sters — to a “late defection” of liberal vot-
ers from the centre and right in fear of the
NDP.
Another story that political polling in-
dustry missed was the near obliteration
of the Bloc Québéois. Although they were
widely expected to plummet, the main
polling firms and seat projectors did not
come close to projecting they could lose
party status by securing only four seats.
The pollsters’ blurred crystal ball follows
months of internal dispute within the in-
dustry. Some pollsters — notably Allan
Gregg of Harris-Decima — have bleakly
assessed the business as one plagued by
methodology problems in both telephone
and online surveys, which are skewing re-
sults.
The concern is that telephone surveys at-
tract older Canadians, namely those who
rely on land lines rather than cell phones.
Online surveys, on the other hand, are
said to attract younger voters.
Also, the industry has pointed a finger
at the media for over-hyping results. An-
other identified problem is that response
rates in general are declining as pollsters
compete with telemarketers.
Graves disputes that response rates are
affecting results — he said that credible
research shows it makes no difference.
Nonetheless, he said it’s time for poll-
sters to do some soul-searching and look
at lessons that can be learned from the
2011 federal election campaign, including
wildly fluctuating pools through the early
and middle weeks.
One possibility, he said, would be for
the notoriously competitive industry to
set aside differences and jointly devise “a
gold-sealed election poll that is impec-
ELECTION 41
cable from Day One.”
One pollster who was not talking about
lessons learned was Nik Nanos of Nanos
Research. He came the closest of all the
top pollsters in assessing party support,
including the Conservatives, whom he
pegged at almost 39 per cent, based on
Sunday polling.
“Nanos numbers looking good,” he
wrote on Twitter as the election results
came in.
Nanos was among the pollsters who did
not venture into seat projections.
In the end, the popular vote break-
down was 39.62 per cent for the Conser-
vatives and 30.62 for the NDP. The Lib-
erals captured 18.91 per cent, while the
Bloc Québécois took six per cent and the
Greens almost four per cent.
A 2009 article by in Vue, the magazine
of the Market Research and Intelligence
Association, the umbrella group for the
industry, asserted that pollsters generally
have performed well in elections.
They have been particularly successful
in “telling the right story when it comes
to trending” — which the article says is a
vital component of the job.
Nonetheless, the article, by Leger Mar-
keting pollsters, concluded that the in-
dustry should start asking itself questions
rather than just asking questions of po-
tential voters.
ELECTION 41
Green MP
celebrates
historic victory:
‘We’ve proved
Canadians want
change’
Tue, May 3, 2011
Sonya Bell
Elizabeth May unseated Conservative cab-
inet minister Gary Lunn with a resound-
ing 48 per cent of the vote Monday night,
becoming the first elected Green in Cana-
dian history. The third time was the charm
for May, who ran unsuccessfully in Lon-
don, Ont., and against Conservative star
Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia.
The feisty Green leader beamed Mon-
day night when she delivered her victory
speech to a large crowd of supporters on
Vancouver Island.
“We’re on TV, guys!” May said with a
laugh upon taking the stage. Earlier in the
night, she had again expressed her anger at
being left out of the televised national lead-
ers’ debate.
“Today, we’ve proved that Canadians
want change in politics,” May said with an
enormous smile. “We ran a very non-parti-
san campaign. We ran a co-operative cam-
paign.” She pledged to always speak truth
to power as Saanich-Gulf Islands’ elected
Member of Parliament.
The 2011 campaign marked the first time
the Green Party embarked on a specific
mission to elect its leader. Saanich-Gulf Is-
lands was identified as a riding with Green
leanings, and May moved to Sidney soon
after losing her 2008 bid to unseat MacKay
in Central Nova.
The Green team focused heavily on the
riding, with May spending three-quarters
of her time there even before the writ was
dropped. An August 2010 poll gave her 32
per cent of the riding’s support, slightly
trailing Lunn, who commanded 34 per
cent.
When the election was called, it was all
hands on deck. The party transferred near-
ly $67,000 to its Saanich-Gulf Islands rid-
ing association in 2009, on top of a $25,500
transfer from Central Nova. It opened two
constituency offices, though one was tem-
porarily closed after a driver crashed into
it.
In contrast to 2008, when May launched
an extensive national tour, the party lead-
er stayed close to home in 2011, spending
many mornings on the side of the road,
waving to commuters.
May inspired an exciting race, and
11,000 voters came out to the advance polls
in Saanich-Gulf Islands — more than any-
where else in British Columbia.
The advance polls were considered key to
a Green win, in order to capture votes from
the 4,000 University of Victoria students
who live in the riding during the school
year, but were set to finish up their exams
before the Easter weekend. The Greens
courted the early vote, including a stunt on
the Thursday night in which Young Greens
drew lines with sidewalk chalk to point the
way to polling stations. The effort paid off
— and the returning officer even reported
many young people had taken advantage of
the special ballot option that allows people
to vote even before the advance polls. May
went on to win by riding by 2,000 votes.
But the 2011 campaign was tougher for
May than the 2008 version. “I wasn’t ex-
pecting that,” she told iPolitics.
The greatest challenge was her fight to be
included in the national leaders’ debates. It
was a fight for democracy, she argued.
The public outpouring of support for
May did not sway the consortium, and so
she took on a legal battle. She filed a Char-
ter challenge against the consortium’s de-
cision in federal court, but this push was
derailed after the judge refused her request
to have the case expedited in time for the
debates.
May became concerned that, in the flur-
ry of coverage around the debate issue,
the Green Party’s status had actually been
hurt. “I want issue coverage,” she said.
“We’ve been trivialized, as if I’m a pushy
outsider trying to get in a door marked No
Greens.”
But when Parliament reconvenes, there
will be a seat marked with May’s name.
No longer will she watch question period
from the rafters. She’ll be the one ask-
ing the questions, more than likely of her
longtime rival Prime Minister Stephen
Harper.
A gracious Harper congratulated May
on her “historic” win when he delivered
his own victory speech in Calgary Monday
night. She also received a congratulatory
phone call from Lunn.
In 2008, Lunn won the riding with about
1,500 more votes than the Liberal candi-
date. But Harper knew the riding was vul-
nerable — he made two trips to the riding
since the writ dropped, the first in March,
and the second during the Easter weekend.
May said this election is a testament to
Canadian democracy.
“It’s an election that proves that pundits
aren’t very useful. The electorate makes the
decision.”
ELECTION 41
ELECTION 41
Liberal post-mortem begins
in wake of record defeat
Tues., May 3, 2011
Kathleen Harris
The once-mighty Liberal Party has been
reduced to a rump.
A dismal electoral showing — bleed-
ing to the left and the right to finish with
a record-low number of seats — left many
long-time supporters soul-searching and
some openly weeping. Leader Michael Ig-
natieff accepted “historic responsibility for
historic defeat” and instructed the party to
look in the mirror to determine what went
wrong and how to move forward.
“There was a longing for change, a yearn-
ing for change. We can be proud of the role
we played in triggering that longing and
desire for change, unfortunately we could
not be the beneficiaries of that longing
for change,” he said during a concession
speech in Toronto.
Making the already devastating blow
worse, Ignatieff lost his own seat in Etobi-
coke-Lakeshore.
Liberals across the country have already
begun a post-mortem on what went wrong
– and when. Akaash Maharaj, a senior resi-
dent at the University of Toronto’s Massey
College and past Liberal national policy
chair, said it’s tough to pinpoint the prob-
lems. With Canadians despairing over a
“crisis” in democratic institutions, the par-
ty should have been fighting an easy target.
“Why, at a time when Canadians feel
there is such a serious problem in the polit-
ical system, have Canadians not entrusted
the Liberal party to be the solution?” he
asked. “The Liberal Party will be engaged
in a great deal of soul-searching for the
next few months, asking the question, if
the Liberal Party can not defeat a Con-
servative government that in the minds
of Canadians has crippled democracy and
mismanaged public finances, I think it’s
reasonable to ask itself, in its current form,
who could it defeat?”
The Liberal Party brand took a beating
with the sponsorship scandal. But Maharaj
believes the party has also lost touch with
its grassroots by adopting a presidential-
style, leader-centric approach that fails to
engage masses of liberal Canadians. For
too long, members have been living under
an “illusion” that a messiah will arrive to
lead the party out of the wilderness.
“I think the greater issue is that the party
has been allowed, under a succession of
leaders, to atrophy as a national politi-
cal movement and increasingly become a
campaigning vehicle for the leader of the
day. And that is not a sustainable model,”
he said. “I think Liberals have to confront
the fact that the leader has not been the
problem, nor is he the solution. It requires
a wholesale rejuvenation of the Liberal
Party as a national institution.”
Maharaj said Ignatieff was damaged
early and badly by Conservative attack ads
that cast him as a “visiting professor.” The
Liberals didn’t fight back fast enough.
“In politics, as in life, you never get a
second chance to make a first impression,”
he said. “No political leader wants to find
himself in a position where he is being de-
fined by his enemies instead of himself.”
The Conservatives managed to take what
should have been a great strength – an in-
ternationally respected intellectual – and
turned it into a slur. In the end, the Liberal
campaign compounded its mistake by re-
sponding late to the criticisms by repack-
aging Ignatieff.
Former Liberal cabinet minister Jim
Peterson said while there will be varying
opinions on what could have been done
differently, there is general agreement that
Ignatieff delivered a strong performance
and solid platform. Some of the party’s
problems that must be addressed are more
systemic, such as building strong fundrais-
ing and riding association networks.
“I don’t think we need radical reform. I
don’t think we need bloodletting,” he said.
One veteran Liberal said insiders began
to get nervous after the debates, when
NDP Leader Jack Layton scored powerful
punches. After a strong start to the cam-
paign, it was becoming clear Ignatieff was
not connecting outside core supporters.
“That basically solidified in people’s
minds that the Liberals were over-confi-
dent, cocky, feeling they had some sort of
right to govern,” he said. “It worked. People
already had this view created by the Con-
servatives of the Liberals being elitist, and
Layton was able, with his lines, to define
that in people’s minds.”
The unexpected rise of the NDP present-
ed a strategic conundrum, as the Liberal
game plan has been to win over NDP sup-
port to stop the Conservatives.
“When the NDP gets so strong that they
are tied or ahead of you, that strategy be-
gins to backfire on you,” he said.
Post-election analysis will no doubt point
to other problems– including the party’s
failure to resonate outside big cities. Yet
despite the defeat, Liberals do not appear
to be in a rush to embrace a “unite-the-
left” movement – an endeavor some believe
would risk disenfranchising even further
those in the centre-right of the party.
Maharaj said considering that kind of
“seismic shift” in Canadian politics due to
one election result would be a “gross over-
reaction.” Instead, the Liberals must work
to rebuild and strengthen their support –
and learn from strategic mistakes.
“I suspect the NDP has fared well in this
campaign because with the Conservatives
and the Liberals attacking one another, the
NDP has been able to come up the middle.
By the time those two parties trained their
guns on the NDP, the campaign was virtu-
ally over.”
ELECTION 41
ELECTION 41
‘Adult decisions about adult issues’
Wed, Apr 27, 2011
Sonya Bell AND MEG WILCOX
Whether it was viral videos of Rick Mer-
cer urging youth to vote, a youth flashmob
during Stephen Harper’s visit to Guelph, or
a University of Western Ontario student
kicked out of a Conservative rally for hav-
ing a picture with Michael Ignatieff on her
Facebook page — the youth vote received a
lot of attention this election.
Often, when youth come up during an
election it’s in reference to their generally
dismal turnout – after all, only 37.4 per cent
of 18 to 24 year olds voted in 2008.
While young voters are often referred to
as a homogenous unit, it’s one of the most
diverse voter groups. The youth vote ranges
from recent high school grads to young pro-
fessionals — of all backgrounds — in both
rural and urban ridings.
Near the end of the campaign, iPolitics.ca
and Postmedia News hosted Youth Debate
2011 where young federal party activists
used policy, platform, and partisan jabs in
an effort to win over the elusive youth vote.
Nearly 100 young people were in the au-
dience, with more tuning in online, to hear
Conservative Alykhan Velshi, Liberal Eliz-
abeth Dubois, New Democrat Isaac Cock-
burn, and Green Jonathan Halasz sound off
about post-secondary education, job cre-
ation, and electoral reform.
The debate was more civilized than the
national leaders’ debate, according to young
people in the audience.
“There was more actual discussion,”
Natalie Tremblay, 19, said. “The candidates
weren’t so polarized.”
But the participants did stick close to their
party lines — including lines of attack.
Less than 20 minutes into the debate,
Conservative representative Velshi broke
out a favourite Conservative buzzword, re-
ferring to his opponents as “the opposition
coalition.” He also worked in two attacks
on Michael Ignatieff’s years abroad, saying
it must have been in the United States that
the Liberal leader learned polarity and at-
tack politics.
Liberal candidate Elizabeth Dubois fired
back that Ignatieff embraces open and
transparent government, in contrast to
Harper, who was found in contempt of Par-
liament and has banned young people from
his rallies on the basis of their Facebook ac-
counts.
NDP representative Cockburn broke in to
say that this was the sort of partisan back
and forth that Jack Layton would fix in Ot-
tawa. He then decried Ignatieff’s attendance
record in the House of Commons.
Halasz, the Green representative, brought
it full circle when he fingered the Conser-
vative Party as the first to bring American-
style attack ads to Canada. He pointed out
that, in contrast, the Green Party’s first and
only attack ad this election was against at-
tack ads.
During the 90-minute debate, the partici-
pants took questions from the audience and
over email and Twitter. The queries were
largely youth-centred, such as where the
parties stood on lowering the voting age,
online voting, tuition fees, and political rep-
resentation of women and minorities.
Katherine DeClerq, 21, said it was a nice
change to hear about topics that are more
important to youth, such as electoral re-
form.
But Curtis Fraser, 28, said there was
no need to focus on “childish” issues. He
wanted to see the pre-determined topics ex-
panded to include international trade and
defence.
“We make adult decisions about adult is-
sues.”
There are 3 million Canadians under age
25 who are eligible to vote on May 2. The
youth debate was organized and webcast
by iPolitics and canada.com to encourage
them to cast their ballot.
ELECTION 41
ELECTION 41
Behind the
orange door?
Opposition
leader Jack
Layton
Tue, May 3, 2011
Colin Horgan
In the end, perhaps it was not that com-
plicated.
For many observers, the rise of the
NDP was the biggest surprise of the 2011
campaign. It raised many questions. For
starters, how did the nation’s perennial
also-ran — the fourth party of so many
Parliaments — manage to galvanize the
electorate?
The NDP’s rise in Quebec has been
building progressively during the past de-
cade since Jack Layton first took control.
The manifesto crafted in 2005 — “Qué-
bec’s Voice and a Choice for a Different
Canada” — pledged that the party would
encourage support in the province “by the
social democratic values of co-operation,
recognition, equality, respect, flexibility,
transparency, and honesty.”
It was a positive message directed at a
province that had for decades sided with
a separatist federal party. Layton hit the
road to sell the message outside of Quebec.
Back to the beginning
On the first day of the 2011 campaign, Jack
Layton gathered a medium-sized crowd of
supporters to the Chateau Laurier in Ot-
tawa.
On TV screens, the NDP faithful
watched the prime minister explain how
an “unnecessary election” would jeop-
ardize Canadian stability and safety — a
warning that would define the narrative of
his campaign.
When Harper was done, Layton stepped
up with a slightly different message. “Ste-
phen Harper sees co-operation as a weak-
ness,” he told the crowd. “I view it as a very
Canadian strength.”
There were questions about Layton’s
own strength. He was living with cancer
and just back from hip surgery. Observers
wanted to know if the vivacious campaign-
er was up for the campaign. He spoke that
day with his arm tucked through the half-
circle loop of his by then-familiar forearm
crutch. Shortly before his surged in the
polls, he would graduate to a cane.
In the early days of the campaign, Layton
pushed aside questions about his health. It
was business as usual, he insisted, though
perhaps not for others.
“Mr. Ignatieff’s words don’t match his
actions,” Layton told the crowd on open-
ing day. “And he’s betting you don’t no-
tice.”
Just watch me, Layton seemed to be tell-
ing the crowd.
The peasants are restless
Political tides have shifted during the past
year or so. In Calgary and Toronto, for
example, new mayors stand in contrast to
the cities they were elected to lead. Cana-
dians have grown skeptical of politicians,
political parties, and even of the system.
“Going into an election campaign as an
incumbent, you have to inoculate yourself
against that anger or you’ll become the fo-
cus of that anger,” says former NDP cam-
paign director Robin Sears.
Sears says it’s a point that should have
occurred to Stephen Harper.
“You can run a fear-driven campaign
and you have enormous credibility and
you have the agreed and obvious icon of
whatever it is you think people should be
fearful of,” Sears says. “Unfortunately for
Harper, he is that icon to many people.”
On Monday evening, the Conservatives
pulled off their majority.
As the results rolled in, it was clear NDP
success was not built on Conservative fail-
ings, but rather something else. The par-
ty’s success in Quebec was almost total. In
crippling the Bloc, it succeeded in doing
what some in Canada have been trying to
do for years.
But how?
Layton performed well in the debates. It
helped that Ignatieff did not. He appeared
on Tout le monde en parle, a popular Que-
bec television show, which gave him a ma-
jor bump in a province that had never re-
ally considered him before.
The NDP plan for Quebec was part of
it, but there was more. In an election that
from the beginning struggled for a tan-
gible theme or narrative, more and more it
was to be about something else – a choice
between images.
Lewis H. Lapham once noted that “in
place of an energetic politic, we substitute
a frenzied spectacle. … The one attribute
that can be known and seen comes to
stand for all the other attributes that re-
main invisible.”
In a weird way, at their core, Harper and
Ignatieff had the same message as Layton:
Through them, Canada could be a better
place — a country setting course for better
days. A stronger nation. Only the messag-
ing, the imaging, was different – and Lay-
ton himself no doubt played a part.
While Harper made the case for eco-
nomic stewardship, his campaign was
built on repeated warnings about the dan-
ger lapping at Canada’s shores. Harper
asked for Conservative stability, but talked
about the opposite.
For his part, Ignatieff talked about Lib-

eral stability, but asked instead for a crip-
pled Conservative Party.
Layton, on the mend himself, talked
about stability and strength and defiantly
waved his cane in the air.
Working it
On the second-to-last day Saturday of the
campaign, Layton appealed to a capacity
crowd in Montreal. “Let’s work together,”
he urged almost a thousand people at the
L’Olympia theatre in downtown Montreal,
the heart of Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe’s
riding.
“Let’s roll up our sleeves and start the
work right now!”
Layton thanked the crowd, then glad-
handed his admirers, the message of the
collective effort hung in the air.
It was an extension of his first speech
in March – the one that scolded Stephen
Harper for not being open to co-operation.
It resonated with Toronto student Giulia
Cifarelli.
“[Layton’s] different policies and plat-
forms, it’s all people-focused,” she told iP-
olitics on election day. “It’s very focused on
starting from the community and working
your way up. And I guess if you’re starting
with the community and you have some-
one fighting for you at the top, too, some-
where in between, you’re going to meet.”
During the campaign, it became less
about what Layton was fighting against,
and more about what he was fighting for.
By the time he stepped off his podium in
Montreal, he was no longer facing ques-
tions about his health or the size of the
crowds.
Instead, Layton was responding to ques-
tions about his party’s platform.
And as much as it showed the shift in
media focus, Layton was sprinting away.
NDP popularity numbers jumped almost
overnight.
At that point, questions about the finer
points of the policy might not have mat-
tered, says Sears. By that time, he says, peo-
ple are voting “on the basis of character…
and overall perception of the leader of the
party.”
They don’t care about individual policy
items, he says. “That dissection — or an
analysis process — that you go through at
the front end, not at the back end,” he says.
On election day in a downtown Toronto
coffee shop, at least one Liberal-turned-
NDP supporter agreed.
“Jack Layton’s messages I always see are
very positive, he has a very warm persona,”
said Allison Costa. “Every time I see him
in the public, he seems like a very person-
able person.”
In 2005, Layton promised to give Que-
bec voters a voice. In 2011, he promised the
same to the rest of Canada.
Then, Monday.
Orange Crush
As the projections began to jump on the
big screens at the Metro Toronto Conven-
tion Centre, the NDP faithful poured into
ELECTION 41
the expansive room, and cheered their new
MPs as the seat count climbed higher.
By the time it was over, the NDP had
earned more than 100 seats.
Despite the NDP’s success, the Conserva-
tive numbers grew faster quickly. Watch-
ing the numbers, the crowd remained hap-
py but subdued. The organizers pumped
dance music through the speakers at full
volume, and New Democrats stood in bit-
tersweet irony. Their massive victory has
been tempered by Stephen Harper’s first
majority government.
In the end, the Conservatives had man-
aged to win again.
“I’ve always favoured ‘proposition’ over
‘opposition,’ ” Layton told the crowd of
more than 3,000 just after midnight. “You
can count on New Democrats to bring
people together across political divides,”
he said.
He listed the things for which Canadians
voted on Monday: universal health care,
better pensions, and help to make ends
meet.
For the most part, the crowd was respon-
sive to the victory that would have been
complete if it weren’t for the “almost.”
“If we stick together, there is no challenge
we cannot overcome,” Layton said. The
crowd roared. Happy, at least, to finally
have a voice.
Layton then quoted NDP stalwart Tom-
my Douglas.
“Dream no little dreams,” he told the
throng, before leaving the stage cane in
one hand but almost at full strength.
ELECTION 41
ELECTION 41
ELECTION 41

Sweater vest
+ cuddly kitten
= The Team
Harper jacket
Thu, Apr 28, 2011
Sonya Bell
In a whirlwind election campaign, there
was one thing Canadian voters could
count on: Stephen Harper’s choice of ap-
parel. From Vancouver to Cape Breton
Island, the Conservative leader proudly
sported his quilted lightweight Team Can-
ada Olympic jacket.
Retail price: $100. Adding a patriot twist
to his softened image: priceless.
The jacket was this election’s powder
blue sweater vest and cuddly kitten rolled
into one patriotic slam-dunk, according to
fashion consultants.
“I think he’s hitting the right note,” Ed-
monton-based fashion consultant Shirley
Borrelli told iPolitics. “We were all proud
of the Olympics, whether we lived in west-
ern Canada or eastern Canada.”
“If he’s going after the hockey vote, he’s
doing very well,” agreed Leah Morrigan,
an image consultant in Toronto. “He’s one
of the guys.”
Harper has been photographed in the
jacket Easter egg hunting in Royal Oak,
B.C., serving fudge in Sydney, N.S., and ty-
ing a child’s skates at an arena in St. John’s,
NFLD. He also zipped it up at the North-
western Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in
Thunder Bay, and at a Vancouver Canucks
sporting goods store in Vancouver.
The jacket is a great choice for these casu-
al venues, Borrelli said. It sends a personal
and patriotic message to voters.
“I love it. I think it really warms him up.
I think it helps him relate. And I think it’s
going to work in his favour,” Borrelli said.
This campaign, it’s all about being the
homegrown boy. Conservative Party ads
have consistently targeted Michael Ignati-
eff’s years abroad as a Harvard professor as
evidence that he is not committed to Can-
ada. In the famous words of the attack ads:
“He didn’t come back for you.”
But Vancouver-based image special-
ist Mihaela Ciocan warned Harper not to
overuse the Canada jacket.
“For most situations during the cam-
paign it is best to err on the conserva-
ELECTION 41
tive side with tailored and softly tailored
styles,” she said. “Plus these styles are what
Harper appears most comfortable in, and
that is essential because what feels best
usually looks best.”
The Hudson’s Bay Company introduced
the jacket ahead of the Olympics, and it
sold out in stores before the Games ended.
It was available on eBay for as little as $50
by March 2010.
Nevertheless, the look is not outdated,
Borrelli said. She speculated Harper’s en-
dorsement could drive up sales at HBC
stores, where Olympic merchandise is still
for sale.
A newly created Facebook page asks: Are
You Getting Tired of That Canada Jacket
Yet? In its first four days, it grew slowly to
just more than 50 “likes.”
“I doubt that in the wake of the historic
Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games,
patriotic Canadians will turn their backs
on such a symbolic jacket for political rea-
sons,” Clocan said.
ELECTION 41
#Elxn41 in tweets
Parliament dissolves:
@meghw: Meg Wilcox
Harper: will go to GG tomorrow to ask for
dissolution of Parliament. Says “only pos-
sible option”. #ipca #cdnpoli
Coalition:
@LizT1 Elizabeth Thompson
Two Canadian PMs have tried to form coali-
tions - MacDonald and Borden. Guess what
party they came from? http://bit.ly/hfiaCl
#elxn41 #ipca
@cfhorgan colin horgan
if there were ever an argmnt for better elemen-
tary civics classes, this is it. we’d understand
coalitions & avoid this silliness. #elxn41
Debate:
@OttawaReporter Kathleen Harris
Photographers position to shoot “Family
Photo” of leaders politely shaking hands before
they take the gloves off for debate #ipca #db8
@LizT1 Elizabeth Thompson
Duceppe congratulates Harper for answering
first citizen’s question of the campaign. Zinger.
#ipca #elxn41
@emily_senger Emily Senger
Reads like April Fools Day story but it’s
real: French election debate date switched
because of Habs game http://bit.ly/g7UsN4
#ipca#exln41
@devonblack Devon Black
I’ll say it: this format sucks. No one really
wants to watch Iggy and Duceppe agree that
crime is bad. #ipcadb8
@devonblack Devon Black
Iggy’s losing his temper on the democracy
issue. Is it enough to make Canadian voters
care? #debat
@devonblack Devon Black
How do you cut “fat” without cutting pro-
grams? Is Harper saying bureaucrats should
exercise more? #debat
@so_bell Sonya Bell
“How long does this go on for?” Hy’s crowd
ready for the TV to be turned down again.
#ipca #db8
@so_bell Sonya Bell
Group of committed debate watchers at Hy’s
shrinking. New arrivals not paying attention.
Is this the apathy we speak of? #ipca
@LizT1 Elizabeth Thompson
Ignatieff says Harper’s reluctance to do open
town halls etc also an Americanization of Ca-
nadian politics. New narrative. #ipca #elxn41
@LizT1 Elizabeth Thompson
Interesting tactic by Harper. Let Ignatieff and
Duceppe bicker then wades in asking people
to imagine them trying to run minority govt
#ipca
@meghw Meg Wilcox
OH: “the calibre of the debate depends on
the calibre of the candidates... So it’s not too
surprising” #ipca
@meghw Meg Wilcox
Most of the people at this party are saying
the leaders are missing the major issues. It’s
frustrating, they say #ipca
Leaders:
@cfhorgan colin horgan
Canada is an “island of stability” says Harper.
And hey, the crowd loves it! #CPC #elxn41
@cfhorgan colin horgan
Crowd wanted to boo at one point, as Jack
listed bad things happening in Ottawa, then
held off... Jack “you can react”. Boos ensued.
#elxn41#ipca
@so_bell Sonya Bell
May gives a dif greeting and speech at every
whistle-stop. I understand this isn’t the way all
leaders do it. Dorval bound. #elxn41#ipca
@LizT1 Elizabeth Thompson
@GeorgeTheCar Candidates for MP get lots
of exercise on the campaign trail but leaders
tend to spend the day sitting in planes, buses,
cars.
@emily_senger Emily Senger
A crying preschooler in front of Harper proves
using humans as announcement backdrop can
go wrong: http://bit.ly/hAGUdY #ipca#exln41
@LizT1 Elizabeth Thompson
Poster girl for the Conservatives and the Bloc
doesn’t actually support either. Great sleuthing
by @meghw http://bit.ly/gsLtwM #ipca