Theres virtually no seats in the Atlantic provinces. 32 in total across 4 provinces. Ontario and Quebec have about 200 total. They are the only 2 provinces that matter and decide all elections on the spot with roughly 60% of the total seats required to decide prime minister/leading party. Virtually all of those seats are located in GTA and Montreal area.

Additionally, most locals in Maritimes know the candidates personally and vote based on who they know. Rodger Cuzner in Nova Scotia was a major figure in minor hockey and local public work that everyone in the Cape Breton region knew. He won the instant he ran and would win as an independent or green party or whoever he chose. Halifax decides the most seats in NS, so it doesnt even matter either what rest vote. Wild Rose and other parties in Ft McMurray area are run by locals that got lots of votes based on that more than any chance of being PM.

This is common in many non-metropolitan areas of the country. It's also the same effect in immigrant dominated ethnic enclaves that vote liberal - chinese running mandarin ads in Vancouver telling them to vote for their candidate, sharia law patrols in muslim ridings going door to door maknig sure people know who to vote for, khalistan hopefuls telling their "based sikhs' to vote their candidate and so on. They all vote for who they know and want, not parties.

But, ultimately, the rest of Canada does not matter. 338 seats total. About 200 are in Ontario and Quebec. No one else matters. win those and you are PM. Even a minority victory, like the historically low Trudeau 30ish% minority government, is enough to be PM. This isnt America or other countries. We dont vote for PMs. We vote for random people we know across the country. There is no 'vote trudeau' option.

Finally, we have a first past the post system. Many people also hedge their bets. Are liberals going to win? We should vote liberal. As eastern most and first done voting, maritimes must decide who they think will win elections when deciding to vote. The fact entire sections of the country can be fucked over by not being the winning party is insane. Even one part of the province being blue vs rest red is enough to impact jobs and funding immensely. Being forced to 'guess right' is a huge issue with our system. If you are in a large liberal area, you wont vote either since its pointless and leads to false idea that areas are pure liberal. Take maritimes - entire provinces governed by 2 or 3 seats. Halifax could decide that all of NS is liberal basically in our system despite thousands of others being conservatives. Mass importing the 3rd world to provinces skews the votes massively in this way by flooding key ridings. Only a few are needed in maritimes to tip scales and entire province looks liberal after a few years.