text: Exactly.  Canada for good or ill has swung leftward over the past five years so electing another Harper won't work in the short-run.  Yes Harper's policies were reasonably popular about a decade ago but politics goes in cycles and we are in a left wing phase now meaning the political centre is the furthest right one can be and still win.  Attitudes towards deficits, taxes, government spending, and role of government according to most polls have taken a sharp turn left and since Harper didn't adjust he lost.  Yes eventually the pendulum will swing back but that is probably a few elections away.