Well, of course, Stephen Harper (the prime minister and Conservative leader) called the election because he thought it was his chance to have an overall majority. And, for a while, it looked as if that would happen.
But first there was the rapid decline of the automotive industry, which hits Ontario (the most populous province) in particular, and the federal government's being blamed for not doing enough to help. To a degree, that's probably a fair criticism; the provincial government is pumping money into retraining and employment counselling services, but the federal government has pretty much shrugged its shoulders and refused to adjust any national allocations of cash/interprovincial transfers to take into account the fact that Ontario's currently hurting badly. So the Conservatives are getting flak for that.
Second, the global economic crisis is hurting Canada as much as anywhere else, and that in particular is causing Harper's personal poll rating to plummet, and the party's standing overall to decline. Now, it's looking like another coalition government, just like the last federal election only a couple of years ago. Last time, the Bloc Quebecois joined in coalition, but its leader, Gilles Duceppe, has been saying some pretty harsh things about the Conservatives in the campaign. Which is not to say that the Bloc won't go back into coalition if the electoral maths means they could get a majority together, but it might look a little hypocritical
Incidentally, as someone still getting used to the Canadian political scene, I was surprised when, a few weeks ago, I went to the Conservative Party website to see what kind of campaign message they were promoting. Out of five pictures on the front page of the website, four were of the Liberal leader, Stéphane Dion - and they were attack ads, of course. Now, there are three of Harper to two of Dion, but that still seems very odd to me and creates a very negative impression - if I were an undecided voter (and I'm neither undecided nor a voter; I'm not yet eligible to vote in Canada) that would have put me off voting for that party.
It's going to be an interesting day next Tuesday.
Wendy
