Why was Brian Mulroney's support within urban areas so strong in comparision to Harper?

Question

He won many urban ridings in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver (Calgary has always been traditionally Tory) and he was a Blue Tory who supported an open market.

How then could he have did so well in comparision to present Conservative Stephen harper, who has absolutely no seats in the three major urban areas?

Answer 1

A huge part of Mulroney's popularity (initially) was due to the nation's anger with the (then) ruling Liberals.  John Turner who took over from Trudeau, inherited a party that had been in power since the late 1950s (albeit with Joe Clark's nine months as pm and short lived leader of the PCs).  His success was as much a protest against the Liberal party as it was a vote of confidence in the PCs.  Mulroney's popularity steadily eroded over his nine years in office and ultimately when the PCs (led by Kim Campbell) lost power they were left with only two MPs in the Commons.  so total and complete was their defeat that the party ultimately disbanded.   The current ruling Conservative Party led by Harper is a blend of the old PCs and the western Reform Party.

Answer 2

Strangely enough, politicians sometimes do well for a while simply because of charisma.  Mulroney did have a great deal of that at the beginning, and he was a good talker.  He was charming and had a great TV persona.  His personality appealed to people.  Stephen Harper does not have that charisma, so he cannot get that sector of the voting population.  That is not all of the answer for sure, but I think it is probably part of it.