Ignatieff Loses Seat as Liberals Drop Out of Opposition

The country changed Monday night, and for Liberal supporters it was a heartbreaking turn.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and wife Zsuzsanna Zsohar leave the stage at the Sheraton Hotel Monday night. Ignatieff lost his own riding in a historic defeat of the Liberal party that will see the NDP form the Official Opposition to Stephen Harper's Tory majority. Matthew Little/The Epoch Times

TORONTO—The country changed Monday night, and for Liberal supporters it was a heartbreaking turn.

While the Tories got their majority with 167 seats, and the NDP secured a historic high of 102, the Liberals were decimated, reduced to only 34 seats, their worst showing ever and the first time in Canadian history they are not either in government or opposition.

As the results came in, so did the tears. The Grand Ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Toronto was marked by consoling hugs and empty stares as the Liberals were handed a definitive rejection at the polls.

The only party that fared worse was the Bloc Quebecois that was reduced to only two seats, while the Greens made their breakthrough with leader Elizabeth May winning her riding.

Ignatieff took to the stage as the room filled, congratulating his rivals and encouraging the party faithful to hold on to hope.

“Stay involved,” said Ignatieff. “Stay with it, we'll come back.”

Ignatieff, however, may not. Leading his party to its worst showing ever, the Liberal leader didn’t hold onto his own Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding as the NDP and Tories swept the Grits from all but a dozen ridings in vote-rich Ontario. Newcomer Conservative Bernard Trottier took the seat from Ignatieff in a close race.

“I accept responsibility for what has occurred,” said Ignatieff, pledging he would play whatever role the party wanted for as long as it wanted, alluding to his likely dismissal as leader of the party.

“Defeat is a teacher,” said Ignatieff, citing his personal defeats as some of the most instructive experiences of his life.

He said the party could renew itself and he would do whatever he was asked to ensure that.

The Liberals were a constituent block of Canada’s history, he told the crowd, and it had been his hope to lead it to renewal.

“I didn’t come into politics to see that tradition die.”

“There was a longing for change,” he noted, saying his party could take credit for creating that, though it was not the beneficiary.

But though it was tough to lose like they did, Ignatieff said supporters should remember the good times.

Margaret Eves, a hereditary Liberal who learned to love the red team and hate the blue from her mother, said the night was “pure devastation.” She didn’t blame Ignatieff though, nor was she disappointed with his work as party leader.

“I don’t think he let the party down, I think a lot of voters let him down.”