Without the influence of Trump, we would likely now be instead contending with a Conservative majority government helmed by the party’s most right-wing leader ever.
In fact, the Conservatives made significant gains, despite failing to achieve the electoral outcome they desired. Across the country, the rightward drift is readily apparent, with Conservatives growing their seat count from 119 to 143 and their popular vote share from 33.7 to 41.3 per cent from 2021 to 2025. Moreover, the right secured growth as voter turnout rose by more than 6 percentage points.
I don’t know the exact number and if there was a poll I wouldn’t imagine it would be very accurate anyway. We are both sharing anecdotes and having a discussion, is that not allowed?
I wish I knew more of them, and like I said, I was only slightly reluctantly one of them. I’m not trying to say they don’t exist, I’m just saying I think there’s a lot of votes they’re throwing away on a relatively pointless anti-gun platform (which honestly I don’t think is even as bad as they made it sound like it was). It’s a matter of messaging, and even how it was phrased. Things like “I’m going to reinvigorate the federal gun buyback” sounds unnecessarily intimidating to gun owners. It plays directly into their fears of “the government will ban my guns” and drives them away from voting Liberal. I know it does, I saw it happen. What does such a policy actually accomplish, and why did they try to turn it into an election issue that felt like it could only hurt them? Who was cheering for this? If they wanted to appear “tough on crime” (again: legal gun owners are not criminals) there’s a dozen other ways they could’ve demonstrated that just as effectively if not more effectively.
only about 17% saying current laws are too strict. 56% of gun owners themselves say laws are too strict. 44% is surprisingly high to me for gun owners