""NDP supporters who were afraid that the Cons might survive for another term, and anything but conservative (ABC) had become a rallying cry. The collateral damage was a thrashing of the NDP which lost many very very good parliamentarians""

Soft Liberals voting NDP, because of a lack of interest in the previous Liberal leader in the previous federal election is one reason why the NDP became the official opposition last time.. Unfortunately for the NDP, they erroneously began to believe the larger number of votes they received at this point indicated strong NDP support in Ontario and Quebec. This aloofness was indicated by Mulcair's odd election proclamation that the NDP only needed 35 seats to defeat Harper. Wishful thinking, versus reality, can lead to big surprises.