UK General Election - May 7th 2015 (The Official Election Day & Results Thread)

[Foucaulf]

Why the blame to the SNP? The problem should be pinned on Labour and their very mealy-mouthed response to SNP collaboration. Given their lack of breakthrough in England, what made you think a less effusive SNP performance would've done?

It'll be interesting to see how much farther the Lib Dems have fallen. Clearly a good chunk of them did not move toward Labour.

[Foucaulf]

Let it be noted here that Lynton Crosby was right. Nobody really wanted this to happen, but it's another bullet point in the relative power of fearmongering.

(And, yes, this is the effect at hand. What 'tactical voting'?)

[Foucaulf]

I don't think either the CPC or LPC were ever left totally without representation in Quebec, and neither party ran a successful campaign in the rest of Canada largely based on portraying Quebecois as bogeymen.

Though not necessarily disputing your larger point, the situation in Quebec in the 1990s were close. Recall that the Bloc Quebecois was formed by a good chunk of the Quebec nationalists Mulroney allied with to form a national coalition; for two elections the PCs had no representation there.

No campaign proper has attacked the Quebecois as bogeyman (mostly because Harper still thought gaining ground in Quebec was a necessary step to a majority up to 2011), but think about the campaign against the "separatists" that dominated their messaging from 2008-9. Since Harper did cobble a majority excluding Quebec in 2011, that weapon is back in their arsenal.