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Losing power exacerbated that break. Organized labour spent millions to help defeat Conservatives over the Wynne and McGuinty years, but found themselves being demonized in Wynne’s final desperate days, when she issued a much-mocked warning that an NDP government would be too beholden to the very same unions she had so fervently courted.

Winning back that support will be one of the many challenges the battered Liberals now face. Loss of party status means a loss of funding the party badly needs at a time they’ve depleted their resources on the failed campaign. They’ll be reduced to the equivalent of nonentities in the legislature, losing the chance to ask questions or participate in debates. That in turn would mean less face time with the public, which they’ll desperately need as they try to recover from the election defeat and rebuild support. And don’t count on the NDP, having achieved the stature of official opposition, to offer any assistance: more than anything, New Democrats will want to keep the Liberals down, the better to improve their own chances of one day replacing the Tories.

Photo by Brent Foster/National Post

It seems unlikely the Liberals will disappear altogether, but there’s also no guarantee of a quick rebound. After losing to Harper’s Conservatives in 2006 it took the federal party nine years to recover, and only after they seized on the public popularity of Justin Trudeau. Until then, repeated efforts to redefine the party’s image and rework its platform made little headway, perhaps because Canadian Liberalism has always been a malleable substance, quick to claim whatever principles and beliefs seem most likely to lead them to power. They can be left-wing, right-wing or centrist, depending on the time, need and shifts in public attitudes.