That's the verdict that I reached observing the last German election. It was the oldest voting bloc that saved the SPD and CDU from having to allow other parties into government. If they didn't vote, neither would have been the largest party. Now many CDU old fogies are jumping ship before the new CDU-SPD government has even been formed, but, too late!, why couldn't they have figured out that their beloved CDU is actually rotten to the core before rather than after they cast their stupid votes? So Germans are stuck with the CDU and SPD for several more years. Why do old fogies keep re-electing the same political parties while younger people's votes are more varied: Green, Left, BSW, AfD, etc.?

I reasoned that it must be because they are those most tuned in to the rather homogenous legacy media, whereas younger people are exposed to a greater variety of information, opinions, etc. The more centralised nature of televized mass media (and newspapers) leads, quite simply, to a procedural homogenisation of minds, which, in turn, helps bring about homogenisation of votes. That is, if they believe the same things, they will vote the same way. The internet, by contrast, does this to a lesser degree. If we removed both the mass media and celebrity figures with cult followings from the internet, it might even tend overall towards heterogenization of minds, to people voting less predictably, and thus to the rise of micro-parties and the decline of hegemonic parties.

This is an example of technology developing faster than we can identify and troubleshoot problems. Televized mass media became ubiquitous long before any sizeable number of people started to suspect that it came with detriments.

In conclusion, Trump's return to office allowed the Canadian mass media to spread TDS-fuelled, fearmongering narratives about him: narratives which would have been far less effective if he was not in office. In particular, they probably tried to associate the Tories with Trump, which would have been an effective strategy once January arrived and the notion that Trump posed a real and present danger became more believable. Enough old fogies watching the mass media would have been convinced that a CPC-led government would not oppose Trump to the extent that the mass media said is necessary, and so they fearfully decided to chance yet another LPC-run government.

Furthermore, particularly simple-minded voters often only see the leader at the top as a problem. I observed this with South African voters back in the 2010s. 'We just need to vote out Zuma. But the Mandelas, the ANC, Leftist ideologies, black rule, etc. aren't a problem. Everything is Zuma's fault.' Now, Zuma is long gone, but these idiots are probably still out there complaining about Ramaphosa rather than anything deeper. With fools like this, you can simply regain their vote by changing the man at the top once he falls afoul of them. Thus voters who simplemindedly opposed Trudeau, too stupid to see the LPC or anything deeper, simply returned to the LPC when Carney became PM, not realising that he's simply a new face put on old problems. 'We just need to vote out Trudeau. But the LPC itself is not a problem. Everything was Trudeau's fault. By getting rid of him, they have shown that they have seen the light, so now I will vote for them for yet a fourth time in a row.'

Combine these observations. You get an old voter who grew tired of Trudeau and who showed signs of switching to the CPC before 2025, only to return to the LPC this year because of Carney and mass media narratives about Trump. This voter was the one who was making the CPC go up in the polls during Trudeau's time only to later make the LPC go up in the polls during Carney's time.

On the bright side, at least Melissa Lantsman won't be the Deputy Prime Minister or occupy any other senior government post. That creature made me indifferent to the election outcome. The NDP supposedly suffering its greatest loss ever is also good news. With Jagmeet Singh gone, I hope the NDP will replace him with some clownish tranny, so that they will become the true blue authentic party of the Left that they were always destined to be.

On the bright side, that means that unless we let them clamp down on free speech more, things should trend in a better direction, as we'll have more voters who don't trust legacy media, and less that do.

Looks like our most important neighbor to the North is fucked, though.

My old man thinks he's clever and has a handle both sides of things because he'll sometimes watch fox news or tune in to talk radio and make snide comments. His brain would absolutely fry if I showed him /pol/ and told him that's where he should be getting his news if he wants to have even the faintest inkling of what exists on the Right.

Alternative media sources are a completely alien concept to the Boomer. They don't realize that all the sources they rail about being Right Wing Propaganda (ie, Fox) are actually just another arm of the same media apparatus that promulgates their worldview and politics. It's why Trump is so utterly terrifying to them. They have no idea where he or people who support him came from because they're so completely unplugged from actual information and grassroots sentiment.

There was "record early voting" and no doubt record mail-in too. I'd wager that areas with a large Asian population had the highest mail-in, and that was 80% for the Liberals :/ It isn't that hard to do, but getting away with it is only possible if no one complains. The "Chinese Overseas Police" have people under their thumbs, eh? The RCMP have ignored it for a decade now, why not? It's only helping the Liberal Party.

Hopefully Canada collapses quickly and most of them are unable to survive the winter.