'Behemoth of Conservative support:' Why Liberals' hoped-for breakthrough in Calgary fizzled
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It's a sentiment shared by non-Tory candidates, particularly Liberal, whose efforts failed to breach that bastion to realize a much-discussed breakthrough in the city, with four seats supposedly at play.
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When the dust from Monday's federal election cleared, the Liberals were left with one seat, a status they carried into the contest and their one sitting MP – George Chahal – was defeated.
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'Calgary is such a massive behemoth of Conservative support and voters view Conservatives as the home team,' said Hannah Wilson, campaign manager for Lindsay Luhnau, who went down to defeat at the hands of Calgary Centre incumbent Greg McLean.
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The riding, along with Skyview, McKnight and Confederation, were widely considered fertile for Liberal success among the 11 Calgary constituencies, but in the end, only the latter one fell into the Grit camp, and narrowly at that.
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Wilson said she's convinced Luhnau and her team ran a top-notch campaign and encountered encouraging signs along the way, including a receptive doorstep audience, an excited volunteer group and motivated Liberal voter base.
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But that campaign got on its feet five days after the writ was dropped and against a well-established incumbent meant 'we were always playing catch-up.'
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Luhnau, did well among advance voters, she said but some of the election day locales, such as Inglewood, proved more Conservative-leaning than expected.
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'A lot of voters felt left out (by the Liberal government) and that was hard to overcome – I don't think it was Lindsay herself,' she said.
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Liberal leader Carney, she said, might not have communicated his pro-energy stance clearly enough, added Wilson.
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