many believe this controversy caused significant damage for the progressive conservatives in the 1985 election, costing them support among their historically strong constituency of anglican voters. david rotenberg, a cabinet minister defeated in his bid for re-election, remarked, "i think [garnsworthy] would probably get the ian paisley award of the year because his speech certainly made it respectable to be anti-catholic." the progressive conservatives actually won the election by a narrow margin and formed a minority government afterwards, but lost power two months later after being defeated in the legislature.