I voted for the guy I knew who would best represent my city, not because I agreed with his party leaders ideas. I wish more voters looked at it that way too, why vote out someone who has done many great things for your city and has a positive track record representing it's citizens in government. I voted for Frank Valeriote in the Guelph riding, yes he is a Liberal and no I didn't agree with all of Iggy's ideals, but I don't like Jack Layton's desires to some how mysteriously pull 70 billion dollars out of nowhere every year for all the things he wanted, and I sure as hell don't believe in anything Harper has said or done. His parties arrogance and just generally scum bag ethics were distasteful and gave me no reason to believe him. Voting to me has everything to do with the ethics, ideas and characteristics of the person you think should be a member of parliament, it's not a popularity contest and people will get butt hurt if in a few years we are back at square one and having an election. Jack Layton gave the people of Quebec a reason to believe that there were better choices and he reaped the rewards heavily, taking most of the ridings in the province. People believe in his ideas and he seems like the kind of guy who cares about the average Canadian, not the rich Canadian like the Conservatives or the poor Canadian living on the poverty line, just average Joe's who work hard and aren't getting enough from their government. The Bloc lost their official party status which is the first step towards having an election referendum in Canada.
I hope Justin Trudeau runs for the Liberal leadership though, the guy is charismatic and like-able, Igantieff didn't have many of the qualities that make a great leader and he cost his party a lot.