Think the People’s Party had zero impact on the 2019 federal election? Think again. Some estimate that the PPC cost the Conservatives up to 7 seats. Of course, this isn’t enough to have changed the outcome of the overall election. but is mildly interesting.
Now the numbers on this are a little suggestive. These numbers are assuming that all PPC voters would have otherwise voted conservative:
Perhaps with 7 more seats, some members of the Conservative party wouldn’t be calling for Andrew Scheer to resign.
The PPC definitely had an impact on at least one smaller party. The Libertarian party of Canada saw many of it’s members move their allegiances to the PPC when it was formed in late 2018. In fact, the libertarians almost lost official party status back in the summer because they were having problems getting enough member signatures to Elections Canada confirming membership in the party.
The fact that some are questioning Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s leadership is interesting. Many libertarians are disenfranchised conservatives and feel that conservative political parties have lost their way in recent years. Libertarian leader Tim Moen has said that the only thing worse than the Liberals winning another election, would be having the Conservatives NOT have to re-evaluate where they stand on some of the issues. And from that standpoint, the PPC may have been successful.