2011 Canadian Federal Election

This, coupled with the CPC constantly attacking Ignatieff as an opportunistic intellectual who had tended to live outside of Canada, but now wanted to lead it ended up reducing Ignattieff to a third place showing in the polling, leaving the election between the incumbent PM Harper's conservatives, and Jack Layton's NDP.

Coupled with a strong NDP campaign, which thanks to Layton's popularity—and Ignatieff's unpopularity—was able to surge and make a strategic voting argument to both Liberal and Bloc Québécois voters that only by voting NDP could one stop a Harper Majority Government

This, plus a folksy upbeat style by Layton—ignoring the partisan exchanges between Harper and Ignatieff,  & hamstringing Ignatieff at the leaders debate with the zinger 'if you don't show up for work, you don't get a promotion'—a dig at Ignatieff's poor attendance record in the House of Commons—allowed Jack Layton to become the most successfull NDP leader in its history.

However, the biggest winners of the election were Steven Harper's Tories—campaining against the potential for an NDP-Liberal-Bloc Québécois coalition, denouncing the unpopular election as unnecessary, and touting his strong handling of the 2008 Financial Crisis—rode the Liberal's collapse in most of Canada to a Majority Government.