Worse election defeat

[IceAgeComing]

write in: The Canadian Progressive Conservatives in 1993; when they went from 150+ seats and a clear majority government to... two seats; getting less votes than Reform who didn't stand east of Ontario and didn't get a whole lot of votes in Ontario.  It killed the party and the type of Conservatism that led the PCs for most of their history has very little power in the modern Conservative party.

Of the two in the poll; clearly the first: it kept the Republicans out of the Presidency for 20 years; set up a coalition of voters that denied the GOP a congressional majority in all bar two House elections until 1994 and all bar four or five in the Senate - despite two Presidential landslides where Democrats were reduced to one state + DC in the electoral college.  They also had to reinvent themselves and accept a bulk of the new deal and other Democratic moves on social security policy in order to get into the position to actually win again - a fair few times, actually.

The Tories of 1997 are really quite similar to the Tories of 2010: sure policies were articulated in a more compassionate way and they changed on some social issues (especially LGBT+ rights; although they kind of had to since a lot changed in the period) but they fundamentally were the same - hell in terms of privatisation they're now a lot more willing to sell off stuff that they wouldn't have gotten through parliament under Major or Thatcher: thinking of the Royal Mail here.  Also they were out of power for a comparatively short amount of time and managed to get re-elected five years later.  Quite clearly, that's a better position long term than the Republicans had in 1932.

[IceAgeComing]

That's really rather academic though because that didn't happen.  The Tories could have won had an election happened during the 2000 fuel crisis; but it didn't.  You can use that argument for everything

[IceAgeComing]

I actually think that there's a pretty strong case in arguing that the 2015 LNP loss in Queensland was worse than the 2012 Labor loss - the ALP had been in power in Queensland for 23 years bar a single three year term (which was a National/Liberal government propped up by an independent, not even a majority one); its natural that you're going to get a big loss after being in power that long in a state like Queensland and especially so with an unpopular federal government - the reason that the loss was as extensive as it was was really that the ALP was right down at its core vote and that Greens and other left-leaning voters just didn't preference the ALP and let their vote exhaust which really hurts Labor; plus Katter stood a full ticket and got over 10% of the votes almost all from Labor, none of which really transfered.

In 2015 the LNP pissed away the biggest majority government anywhere in Australia in a single term after only three years when before that they hadn't won a majority since the days of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen and the malapportionment that kept them in power for 30+ years (for those who don't know; they basically drew four zones in the state and said that all four of those zones needed to have the same number of seats; meaning that country seats which traditional help the old National party had like a quarter of the voters that seats in Brisbane or the other Queensland cities); the Premier lost his (admittedly quite marginal) seat; they gave Labor a clear win in the Two Party Preferred vote (due to left-leaning voters willing to preference them again; Katter not standing everywhere helped) and let them form a minority government.  Sure there was also federal issues there (different government though) but that shouldn't explain entirely how the LNP didn't manage to retain at least a decent sized majority considering where they were coming from...

One thing that we ought to consider is the long-term impact of an election and that suggests to me that the 2012 Queensland election, while being a terrible result for the ALP on the night; wasn't actually as bad as it appeared; unlike the UK Tories after 97 or the Republicans through the 1930s - or hell; even UK Labour during much of the 1980s - they weren't toxic for a significant number of voters for many years afterwards: three years after giving them a good kicking voters were willing to vote for them or at least preference them above the LNP again.  The 2016 NT election night be a better example; but we'll have to wait and see what happens to the CLP...

[IceAgeComing]

New Brunswick 1987 (I think) was entertaining for that; the PCs went from a majority government to... zero seats: as the Liberals sweep every seat in the legislature.

[IceAgeComing]

We're broadening the topic out a bit; which I feel is a lot more interesting than only talking about the two you mentioned.  I mean; its a question with a very clear answer!