I think in general Martin’s strategy of attacking the US backfired. The Canadian Liberal Party has actually pursued fairly positive ties with the US within the past several years, despite the mild disagreement over Iraq. Thus, Martin attacking the conservatives over a pro-America policy rang kind of false in many peoples’ ears, as far as I understand, as well as the typical Liberal strategy towards the NDP.
Actually, does anyone know why, right around New Year’s, a dramatic swing in public opinion began? I met with some Conservative campaign managers and strategists, all of whom were just scratching their heads. The best they could think of was that their strategy, based on repeating a consistent message prior to the holidays (unlike the Liberals, who were making a big push after the holidays), gave their message more air-time. When people got together for vacation, they talked about things, and that helped coalesce opinions. Yeah, not the best reason, but I’m wondering if anyone knows of any other theories running around.