In his concession speech, Harper said the results were not what he had hoped for but said he accepts it without hesitation as the people are never wrong.
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Byrne butted heads with other party members during the campaign, reported Jennifer Ditchburn of The Canadian Press, and was even seen packing up her office days before the election.
The Conservative Party will issue an update on Harper’s resignation early Tuesday morning.
When asked about continued Israeli building in areas that Israel acquired in 1967, Harper said, “When I’m in Israel, I’m asked to single out Israel, when I’m in the Palestinian Authority I’m asked to single out Israel, and half the other places around the world you ask me to single out Israel”, adding that he refused to do that. “And we will offer this alternative as a party that has established a solid basis, a durable basis, including in Quebec”.
Guy Giorno, Harper’s national campaign chair, said in a series of tweets that the criticism was “unfair and unprofessional”.
Spokesperson Kory Teneycke struggled to contain damaging stories about Novak’s knowledge of the $90,000 paid to Mike Duffy to make his Senate expense controversy go away, and the role of a divisive Australian political operative Lynton Crosby in the Canadian campaign.
But Giorno said the party is now launching a review of why their carefully hatched plan to defeat the Liberals and the NDP failed so thoroughly. Former cabinet minister Diane Finley’s name is an early name being floated.
On election night 2006, Stephen Harper walked out in front of a room full of supporters and smiled at the country that had just voted for change.
“We need a conservatism that is sunnier and more optimistic than what we have sometimes conveyed”, Kenney said.
Although we also have no up-to-date information on how much cash the party collected over the three-and-a-half months since the June quarterly report, if there’s one thing the last decade or so has demonstrated, it’s that the Conservatives have – at least historically – been far more successful than their adversaries at convincing supporters to dig deep to fund the cause.
“The disappointment you feel is my responsibility and mine alone”, Harper said, suggesting that he has no regrets about how the campaign was fought.
“The country doesn’t collapse in a stinking heat of rubble when a different party takes over in Ottawa”, Leger explained.
And the grousing about what happened and who should shoulder the blame has already begun. The Conservatives took 99 seats, the NDP won 44, the Bloc Quebecios took 10 and the Green Party held onto one seat.
Complaints ranged from local campaigns not getting the preparation and support they’ve received in past campaigns to a failure by the Conservatives to campaign more effectively on their record – as opposed to just attacking the Liberals. “To the immigrants who have arrived from deeply conservative societies, the Tories point to the two other parties as harbingers of social chaos and corruption”, he said.
“I think I have the best political job in Canada”.
“I am very upset”.
Tom Flanagan, a conservative academic who helped advise Harper before he came to power, told the Toronto Sun that he doesn’t see Harper wanting to stay active in politics, as a few former prime ministers have.
Nova Scotia singer/songwriter Cathy Cook sang the Harper-related blues from the perspectives of many of his favorite targets, including indigenous people, poor people, veterans and scientists in “Stephen Harper Hates Me”.
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For the buzzing clamour about the need for a next leader from Central Canada or the east, there’s agnosticism from Ontario’s John Capobianco of the Mike Harris-era Progressive Conservative.
