Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Canadians were really p*ssed at the Mulroney government over the GST and the failures of Meech Lake and Charlottetown? Not to mention the economy was bad at the time (which never helps the incumbent party), and Kim Campbell ran one of the worst campaigns ever. The infamous ads mocking Chretien's facial disability pretty much sunk the PC party.
Quote:
The outcome, however, was that the ads, which were seen to have unfairly attacked Mr. Chrétien, did irreparable damage. Progressive Conservative electoral support plummeted following the ad fiasco, and on election day the Party received only 16 percent of the vote and managed to salvage but two seats from the 169 they had won in 1988 - an electoral debacle unmatched in Canadian political history. What the outcome would have been without the self destructive political ads is open to speculation, as the momentum of the campaign had already shifted to the Liberals before the Tory's desperation bid to turn the numbers around. However, a respected member of the PC Strategy Committee estimated that without the ads the party could have won 50 to 60 seats. While an NDP strategist calculated the PC's could have claimed 25 seats. Whatever the actual number, the decision to run these two ads has to rank as the single greatest blunder in the use of advertising in Canadian elections.
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http://www.parl.gc.ca/infoparl/english/iss...am=152&art=1031
What were the scandals that plagued the Mulroney government, other than the Airbus scandal, and that was only revealed after the election, wasn't it?