Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamesguy_SJ
I take issue with the fact that Canadians rejected the Lib-NDP coalition just because of Harper; I think Canada's inexperience with even the idea of a coalition government is much more the reason.
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That's a fair point--it was untraveled ground, and people were understandably a bit nervous about it.
I do blame Harper
in part though--he really worked hard to appeal to the lesser angels of our nature during that time period. As you point out, that's unlikely to have been the only cause of the backlash, but I'd argue that it sure didn't help.
In the end, I suspect it might have ended differently had the Liberals and NDP had enough seats without the Bloc. The involvement of the Bloc made for some seriously poor optics.