Liberal Dominance

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Liberal Dominance Looking at Canada’s history, the Liberals dominated federal politics for 69 years in the 20th century. They were also the party that dominated longer than any other party in a developed country. However, the political party lost significant amount of support over the last decade. Looking back at the post-Chretien period, why are the Liberals suffering from a decline and fall of the Liberal dynasty? Some individuals believe there is several trends that have accumulated through time that has ended their success. Starting with the Liberals having a hard time funding their party, the rivalry between Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, the sponsorship scandal, and unable to find a successful party leader are all reasons why the…show more content…
In spite of that, the Liberal’s new party leader was accused all summer about not being in action. (http://www.angus-reid.com/wp-content/uploads/archived-pdf/2008.12.07_FederalScene.pdf) In August 2009, the Liberal’s would not support the minority Conservative government. The poll numbers declined over several months and the political party fell behind the Conservatives. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/09/16/ekos-poll.html) Few months later, the Liberals introduced a non-confidence motion with hope of defeating the government, however the NDP refused from voting and the Conservatives survived the confidence motion. Ignatieff and his party continued to fall even after the government survived the confidence motion. Over the next year and a half, excluding a brief period in early 2010, the support for the Liberals remained 30% below the Conservatives. The beginning of Ignatieff campaign was able to keep his party in second place and by squeezing NDP leader Jack Layton out of the media’s attention. Opponents often criticized Ignatieff’s perceived political opportunism, and was unable to defend himself which was a turning point for the party’s campaign; by the end of the campaign they were positioned third in opinion polls. The most recent federal election on May 2nd 2011 showed the worst showing in its history. The party won 18% of the…show more content…
Some situations were more influential than others such as the Martin/Chrieten rivalry and the sponsorship scandal. “The Liberals find themselves once again in the wilderness.” (page 621) No one knows if the political party can overcome their operational and philosophical challenges. “There are many reasons for this failure, including a lack of resources and a very crowded field of candidates. But the ongoing federal cleavage, personified by the Martin/Chretien vendetta, was also an important factor.” page 605 There’s not one situation that’s the answer for the Liberal’s political decrease in their Liberal dynasty; it is the accumulation of several actions that have lead to where they are
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