The minority Conservative government has survived the latest Parliamentary session, a term in which election speculation slowly died out and Prime Minister Stephen Harper increased his lead in the polls.
The Liberals had intended to topple the Tories during the current term, which wraps up Friday, but that became a near impossibility when New Democrats agreed to prop up the ruling party to make sure that Employment Insurance improvements were made.
While that caused some discomfort in the NDP base, party leader Jack Layton believes he played his cards right when it came to reading the election tea leaves, concluding that voters did not want to head to the polls in 2009.
"We came to be, in the eyes of some at least, the effective opposition," Layton said Thursday.
Over time, it became clear that the Grits weren't going to push for another election.
And the popularity of Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has fallen over the same period, said Harris-Decima pollster Allan Gregg.
The changes in the polls led Ignatieff to replace his inner circle last month, when veteran political strategist Peter Donolo was named as his chief of staff and other senior advisers were replaced or given new duties.
Those changes have given Ignatieff "a more mature approach to being leader of the Opposition," CTV's Graham Richardson told CTV's Canada AM from Ottawa.
And while the Stephen Harper-led Conservatives have gained some ground over the same period, they have faced heated questions over the military's handling of Afghan detainees -- a controversial issue that pollsters said may not be a major concern for voters.
"In some respects, it's equivalent to Lazarus's resurrection. This time last year, we were talking that Harper was done like dinner," Gregg said.
"It's been a tough year. There's a recession. There's still a lot of turmoil in the economy ... to still be hanging onto a 10-point lead is not a bad thing," said Ekos pollster Frank Graves.
But despite what the pollsters may think about the detainee issue, Richardson said it "has the attention of the senior levels of government ... because it is simply not going away."
Outside of Ottawa, Harper visited India and China, hoping to strengthen economic ties, as well as to connect with Canadian voters who hold ties to those countries.
The Tories also presided over a massive stimulus program that was criticized for showing favourtism to Conservative-friendly ridings. But attacks on this issue from the opposition parties failed to take hold in the House of Commons.
With files from The Canadian Press
