What if the PCs did better in the 1993 Canadian election?

The 1993 Canadian election is a pretty interesting AH topic given how volatile the political environment in Canada was and how there was much potential for different results, in particular the PCs winning or not doing as badly. As the PoD, let's have it that Jean Charest wins the PC leadership instead of Kim Campbell, and he runs a better campaign. However, given so many factors were going against the PCs in that election it's hard to see them actually beating the Liberals, but a better loss is probably more plausible. I have been experimenting with different results, and these show how FPP really disadvantaged the PCs in that election (though the PCs would have a shot at a minority government if their popular vote is around the same as that of the Liberals), but their support was spread out nationwide while Reform had very strong support in the West (so they get more seats there) and the Bloc Quebecois had very strong support in Quebec (so the PCs lose out on seats there too). In this Charest as leader scenario, I had these changes to the OTL results; in Atlantic Canada PC+15% and Liberals -15%, in Quebec PC +20% with Liberals -11% and BQ -9% and elsewhere PC +9%, Liberals -6% and Reform -3%. This is what I got for the election result (I have listed the seats that flip ITTL, but don't want to clog up the thread so if you're interested feel free to ask).

1993 Canadian election
Jean Chretien-Liberal: 143+62 32.99%(+1.07%)
Preston Manning-Reform: 57+56 16.78%(+14.69%)
Lucien Bouchard-BQ: 47+37 11.23%(+11.23%)
Jean Charest-PC: 36-120 29.12%(-13.90%)
Audrey McLaughlin-NDP: 11-33 6.88%(-13.50%)
295 seats
148 for majority

This seems like a reasonably good shift to the PCs from IOTL, but they still do badly in terms of seats. Also, when I tried a similar nationwide shift with Kim Campbell as leader instead I didn't get better results for the PCs with their seat total. Perhaps with this result the party can survive and do better in the next election (a rough parallel could be the Liberal comeback in 2015 from their 2011 defeat IOTL). What would be the effects of this election result? How would the 1990s go differently with the Liberals getting a minority instead of their comfortable majority in 1993? Could the Progressive Conservative Party remain a viable force in the long-term? What are your thoughts?
 
Surprising as this may seem, the PC's in OTL were actually doing respectably in the polls until almost the end of September. They even led one poll on September 14 and tied another on September 20...

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Canadian_federal_election
 
Surprising as this may seem, the PC's in OTL were actually doing respectably in the polls until almost the end of September. They even led one poll on September 14 and tied another on September 20...

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Canadian_federal_election

As someone who doesn't have that much knowledge of Canadian history - how did this happen? It just seems totally extraordinary that a party that had a comfortable majority five years prior and and nine years prior had two-thirds of the seats in parliament could collapse so incredibly fast.
 
As someone who doesn't have that much knowledge of Canadian history - how did this happen? It just seems totally extraordinary that a party that had a comfortable majority five years prior and and nine years prior had two-thirds of the seats in parliament could collapse so incredibly fast.

I'm not an expert on Canadian history either but Brian Mulroney was apparently very unpopular during his second term: Recession. Goods and Services Tax. Failure of Meech Lake and Charlottetown. Bouchard leaving the PC's and helping to form the BQ. The cod moratorium. And the way Mulroney retired when faced with looming election defeat didn't help his party either: "In his final days in office, Mulroney made several decisions that hampered the Tory campaign later that year. He took a lavish international "farewell" tour[43] mostly at taxpayers' expense, without transacting any official business. Also, by the time he handed power to Campbell, there were only two-and-a-half months left in the Tories' five-year mandate. Further compounding the problem, Mulroney continued to live at 24 Sussex Drive for some time after Campbell was sworn in as Prime Minister. Brian and Mila Mulroney's new private residence in Montreal was undergoing renovations, and they did not move out of 24 Sussex until their new home was ready. Instead, Campbell took up residence at Harrington Lake, the Prime Minister's official summer retreat across the river in Gatineau Park, Quebec." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Mulroney#Second_mandate_(1988–1993)

The really surprising thing is that for a while in September Campbell was close in some polls.
 
IMO ultimately their coalition was destroyed for the same reason previous Tory governments were, namely that there was nothing besides opportunism holding it together. Charest doesn't change the party's basic ideological orientation, to make the West happy you'd need something basically like the Harper-era party which was never happening with Mulroney or Clark as leader. To say nothing of such a party not being marketable to most Quebec voters. Reform still has a stronger regional base and the momentum, but an eventual merger might be more ideologically favourable to PCs. Chretien having a minority makes little difference because the other parties prefer him to each other, though he'd need to consult them more on the referendum.
 
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