As a politically active conservative Canadian, it has never "baffled" me why our country mostly votes Liberal. It has disgusted me, but never "baffled" me. Most analysis above is correct - Canada is the bastion of corrupt elitists that buy the electorate with their own money. If this doesn't snap everyone out of their collective psychosis, nothing will.
By the way, for anyone who has followed Sir Paul Martin over his career, is anyone now unsure why he has been such a "ditherer" lately? He knew what was coming, and it has rattled his nerves completely.
"successive Liberal governments have continually entrenched soviet-style management in the executive branch"
I can never understand conservatives who accuse the centrist opposition of "soviet-style management" and power grabbing. In the United States and Canada (with the Republicans and PC/Conservatives, respectively), the so-called conservative party has shown itself every bit as willing to grab power, extend its reach, and run an authoritarian, top-down system.
Conservatives are supposed to value good economic policies, balanced budgets, etc., but are all too willing to turn a blind eye when partisan politicians abandon these values for pure cronyism (see: Tom DeLay).
Love 'em or hate 'em (I lean towards "hate 'em" for various reasons), the Liberal government of Canada has run large surpluses for several years running, cut personal and corporate taxes, and reduced the debt-to-GDP significantly. Canada has the second lowest taxes in the G-7.
In the past four years, the Republican government of the United States has extended its legislative reach over individual liberties, run massive government deficits, presided over the highest current accounts deficits in history ($600 billion last year, a predicted $700 billion this year), and been associated with scandals, cronyism and corruption on the order of billions of dollars.
In Canada, about half of voters vote Liberal again and again because they perceive it as the least of several evils. Think about it: after 12 years in continuous power, they've managed to run a $250 million scandal. That works out to less than a dollar a year in wasted tax money per Canadian. It's a slimy business however you look at it, but miniscule when you consider the larger picture.
Again, note that I'm not a Liberal supporter and have never voted for them. I just like to see the facts straight. When the Mulroney Conservatives were in power, plenty of scandal ripped through Parliament Hill. No less than 8 PC Cabinet Ministers and MPs had to step down over corruption, influence peddling, bribery, conflicts of interest, etc. A quickly-buried report found that the Conservative Ontario government under Mike Harris engaged in an advertising pork barrel similar to the Sponsorship scandal and about the same relative scale.
I know someone's going to mention the gun registry here, so let me get the jump: this was a classic case of a P3 gone horribly wrong. When governments and corporations partner up to develop programs, the government assumes the risk and the corporation writes itself a blank cheque. It's a recipe for over-billing, poor oversight, and mismanagement. Again, there's not a government in recent history that hasn't made a similar bungle (Halliburton, anyone?), and right-leaning governments are actually more willing to do this, becuase they're more willing to indulge in these sorts of quasi-free market transactions.