From the western reaches of Spadina Fort York to the Orange bastion of Ossington Ave. to the eastern stronghold of the Danforth, the New Democratic Party put up a heck of show but then just crashed. Liberal Adam Vaughan trounced Olivia Chow. In the early days of the campaign Chow was way ahead of him. Crystia Freeland beat Jennifer Hollett fairly handily despite the nearly 15 percent lead Hollett held at one point. In the remnants of Jack Layton’s former seat, the new riding of Toronto Danforth, a Liberal squeaked by the NDP candidate. Why? Olivia Chow had it right when she said the reversal started two or three weeks before election day. Was that when Justin Trudeau started to talk about how he would spend money instead of try to be like Stephen Harper? What was the homing device embedded in voters heads? Cynics will say the pitta-pat factor of Mr. Trudeau’s handsome visage finally kicked in with some women (just saying) although he was still up against the same shaggy Thomas Mulcair who had been his opponent for months. Whatever the key, it caused a crucial opening up in the polls some ten to 12 days before the vote. Within 48 hours of the Liberals showing a slight lead others said the Conservatives were ahead. How wrong they were. And yet, the election day national pattern of voting sympathy is eerily familiar to the results when the Conservatives were elected. The Liberals won 54 percent of the seats (184) with 39 percent of the vote. The Conservatives garnered 32 percent of the vote to win 99. These numbers represent a fortuitous sprinkling of winning ballots for the Liberals in all the right places. The NDP, which had led the polls at one point,, won only 19 percent of the popular vote.
