NDP Leader Tom Mulcair visits the Town of Essex, October 4, 2015. (Photo by Jake Kislinsky)NDP Leader Tom Mulcair visits the Town of Essex, October 4, 2015. (Photo by Jake Kislinsky)
Chatham

Liberal Majority Came At NDP Cost

A University of Windsor political scientist believes the federal Liberal's big win in Monday night's election came at the NDP's expense.

Assistant professor of political science, Cheryl Collier says once it became apparent over the weekend that Canadians didn't want another four years of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, electors parked their votes with the other party with experience in government.

"I looked like people were abandoning the NDP for the Liberals and really parking their vote with the Liberal party for change," she says. "When you have a party around as long as the Conservatives have been with the same leader, a lot of time people are clamouring for something different. And I think the Liberals really tapped into that."

While the rest of Canada awarded the Liberals with 184 seats, Windsor-Essex bucked the national trend and elected three NDP MPs. Collier says that's nothing new. Windsor-Essex has a history now of voting its own way.

"We saw a similar result in Ontario with the Liberals coming with a surprising majority. At that time, Windsor-Essex went in the opposite direction -- at a time when we had been a Liberal stronghold."

As for the head of the federal NDP, Tom Mulcair, Collier believes he faces some tough questions within the party, and could face an ouster as the leader.

"I think people were upset with Tom Mulcair inside the party anyway," she says. "Some of the moves to the right, made a lot of the party stalwarts uncomfortable."

The NDP won 103 seats in the 2011 federal election but came away with just 44 seats last night.

The Conservatives become the new official opposition after winning 99 seats, down from 166 four years ago.

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