Tories 'blew themselves up': ex-adviser Norquay

"Theirs was a suspicious Canada and a Canada without dreams; they always preferred short-term tactics over a long-term vision. They never understood governing, so they saw no use for government. They ran a closed circle, they humiliated staff, they berated candidates, they pushed every reasonable argument far beyond its logical limit, they shut out others with a different view, and they crafted a campaign based much more on anger and fear than hope.

"Within the Conservative Party, great will be the celebration at their well-deserved and permanent riddance."

Norquay writes that the Conservatives stood a chance of winning at the start of the campaign. But they failed to define the "ballot question" - in their case, the need for experienced leadership.

"Harper had always had a strange aversion to speaking in visionary terms about anything, so his platform was static, defensive and uninspiring.

Harper was focusing on the achievable, while Trudeau was focusing on the possible."