" It was time for Harper and his style of top-down, secretive, corporate-focused leadership to go. But there may well be a large constituency in this country for the positions espoused by some of the Conservative Party's leadership candidates."

Tend to agree with you....it wasn't so much the Conservative party's policies (snitch line etc.) that turned off prospective voters (those that are left of centre were never going to vote for the Conservatives anyways...), but rather that many small "c" conservative voters were indeed tired of Harper's "top-down, secretive, corporate focused leadership".   

Although I did vote for the Conservatives in the last election, that had more to do with my unwillingness to vote for Mr. "snowboard instructor" Trudeau ..... had someone else headed up the Liberal party, I probably would have voted Liberal.