The Conservatives really need to find a way to appeal to a greater selection of the population for the health of our democracy in my opinion. It even get worse if more NDP support bleeds to the Liberals.
I don't really understand the Liberal/Conservative:Urban/Rural divide as I've been rural all my life but then I don't describe myself as a Liberal or Conservative supporter
Some issues play out differently depending on where you live.
Gun control for example. Gun control plays well in urban areas spooked by drive bys, gang hits, street crime. It plays poorly in rural places where people use guns for hunting and personal protection. The CPC has a bulk of its MPs from Rural ridings, and in the interest of representing their constituents they blast any effort of gun control, maybe not understanding that this plays poorly in the cities.
Environment is another. In the big cities, where there is broad based support for climate policies, because those economies are not as tied to natural resources or agriculture are rural Canada, things like a carbon tax play well. In rural Canada where carbon emissions may simply be a cost of doing business, it plays poorly. So you have the CPC blasting the carbon tax, and putting forward flimsy climate plans in their place, and this plays poorly in Urban Canada.
Pipelines, CPC wants pipelines built everywhere in Canada. This helps oil producing rural Canada. Urban Canada does not care for that, they don't want it. Yet you have the CPC out there banging the drum for pipelines.
On almost every wedge issue, the CPC comes out in support of rural Canada, but Rural Canada is largely 2 out of 10 Canadians, Urban Canada is 8 out of 10.
So no matter which way you slice it, there are not enough rural Canadians for the CPC to win, and even split 2 ways between the NDP and LPC, the LPC has enough to win.
Then add in demographics and the situation gets even more dire for the CPC. Only 22 percent of Canadian women would consider voting for the CPC, compared to 40 percent for the LPC and 25 percent for the NDP. I do not know the reasons for this, but I think the angry white male thing the CPC has going on doesn't exactly play well with women.
But I am damned if I know what the CPC needs to do to correct this. Do they advocate for more gun control? Do they come out with a aggressive form of their own carbon tax? Do they disown pipelines? If they do this, at what point does the right wing of the CPC break off? At what point do they become a weird slightly more conservative version of the Liberals?
I don't know the answer, but what I do know is that the current approach isn't working. We shall see what the election brings, and if it is a LPC majority or near majority for 4 years, if the LPC gathers enough baggage to bring about a need for change. Even then, the CPC needs a better strategy than just waiting aboot until the LPC are unpopular enough that their supporters stay home or go NDP/Green in enough numbers to allow them the win the vote split.