The Star has a reasonable accounting of why the Liberals lost Toronto. The story is really about how the Liberals lost Canada. It comes down to two things: immigrants were wooed by Conservatives while Liberals ignored them; Liberals don’t know shit about campaigning.
It strikes me as odd that conservatives hate immigrants but need them to stay in power. Liberals love immigrants but don’t know what to do with them. Conservatives hate the media but manipulate it magnificently. Liberals don’t care one way or another about the media and have no idea what use it is to them.
As incompetent as the Conservatives are at governing, they know how to campaign and woo those who feel they are not ‘elite’. They go after those who feel they are ‘victims’ of society and culture. And no one feels that way more than Albertans and the west, the religious and those who are new to Canada, especially those from third-world countries.
Here in Vancouver, I work almost exclusively with new immigrants. They are overwhelmingly supportive of the Conservatives. They know little of Canada’s politics or its culture. But they do know TV and they do like being reassured by Conservatives who talk their language – security, economic wealth and fear. You can’t beat this kind of messaging with policies alone.
