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“And I thought, if it was like that here in Calgary, I can only imagine what it was like in the rest of Canada.”

Liepert feels the campaign went badly off the rails when the Conservatives de-emphasized jobs and the economy to focus on niqabs and cultural snitch lines and even a rally with ex-Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

Some women in Harper’s caucus were furious that Harper consistently attacked two female premiers, Alberta’s Rachel Notley and Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne, and then appeared with an ex-mayor who lied about drug use and made lewd comments to women.

Liepert says: “All of a sudden it was about a whole bunch of things but not jobs and the economy. That was the strength of Harper’s leadership, the strength of Harper’s government for the past 10 years, and we got distracted from that.”

Harper didn’t really communicate with local candidates, Liepert says.

He never had a private or public word with the prime minister during the campaign, despite being invited — or ordered — to show up at a rally with a crew of enthusiastic supporters.

“That would have been a terrific time to have the prime minister hear what we were hearing out on the streets. But we were just part of the cheerleading crowd.

“A lot of what caused the downfall may have been averted if people running the campaign had talked to people who were actually out on the street.”

“It was evident very early on that this was a vote against a personality, not a vote for or against good government. It boiled down to a personality contest.”

Now, Liepert thinks the party should quickly pick a solid interim leader, but wait at least a year to have a contest for a permanent Conservative boss.

“The worst thing the party could do right now is try to have a leadership (selection) over the next 12 months. There’s no energy left after a three-month campaign.

“That would be another disaster.”

In the meantime, he’d like somebody to tell him if Harper is still the party leader.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

dbraid@calgaryherald.com