The TLDR is, no, I don’t think it’s true that Canada didn’t want anything to do with what pp has to offer. And the proof is in the vote share. If the Libs f up, I believe that the Cons can easily re-campaign on a similar platform, and they will, quite likely, handily win the next election.

Now for the long version…

Unfortunately, I don’t think the results were that simple. Not only have the Cons gained a lot of seats this round, they also gained a lot in vote share, at a historic level not seen since the 1980s. They’re also trailing behind the Libs at 2.1% (around 410k) votes at this time of writing according to the CBC. Had people not rallied behind the Libs and the vote-splitting were any worse, we might’ve ended up with a Cons government (worth noting that given their track record, it’s unlikely that they would be able to function as a minority government, so if they are to form government, they almost have to win the majority). Regardless of what we think of pp’s politics, he’s been able to garner a lot of support through amplifying and channeling the anger that people have due to current issues, to bring about this historic vote share for the Cons. This is one of the key takeaways of this election IMHO.

Yes, I believe the Libs have the potential to do Canada good and protect Canada from the US under Carney. Yes, pp’s a terrible leader by many metrics and is highly unlikable by the general public. And yes, most Canadians don’t want to be like the States and the anti-wokeness bs is clearly not as pervasive here.

But we are not without problems. Problems that pp has successfully gotten people to be mad about and channel their anger in the wrong direction. We’re in a poly-crisis, and such scenarios give the perfect conditions for fascists to swoop in and gain support, and pp has definitely taken advantage of that.

And I also do not, for a single second, think that the anti-woke, Maple MAGAts days are over. They are clearly part of the Cons’ base. There are voices saying that those people will only vote for the PPC, who has earned less than 1% of the vote share, and declared those dead, but some of those voices are from the Cons themselves, and pp was vocal about his support for the Freedom Convoy and that he repeatedly campaigned on anti-wokeness. The fact that the Cons have not imploded over their leader’s affinity to the far-right (iirc pp has had multiple appearances in far-right podcasts) should be a testament to who their base includes.