The Liberals used to be Canada's "natural governing party," but a dip in the Grits' fortunes has some experts predicting they'll never be in power again.

The latest poll from Nanos Research has the Liberals at just 22-per-cent support nationwide, well behind the first-place Conservatives and surging NDP.

University of B.C. political scientist Richard Johnston has been watching the party's erosion for decades, and says that it might be impossible to bounce back from this low point in voter support.

"I really don't think that there's much they can do to restore it, especially if the NDP get more seats than the Liberals do," he said.

He believes the Liberals' downward spiral began 30 years ago, when the party lost its stranglehold on Quebec. The seat-rich province went over to the Tories and then the Bloc Quebecois.

Then the Liberals began losing support in the rest of the country, as their reputation as the only party able to hold the country together began slipping away. This year, the NDP appear poised to take the majority of seats in Quebec.

Johnston predicts that Ottawa will soon be dominated by two parties: one on the left and the other on the right. The Liberals have long governed from the political centre, and Johnston's writing a book about how unusual that it.

"There just isn't, in most systems, room for a party of the centre," he said.

He postulates two different scenarios: Either the Liberals and NDP could merge together into a single party on the left, or the Grits continue to stand alone, even if it means they'll never win another election.

That means that Monday could mark the end of the Liberal party as we know it.

"They could get a stay of execution, because the electoral system may play to the New Democrats' faults," Johnston added.

But Vancouver Quadra Liberal incumbent Joyce Murray, considered one of the party's surest bets in B.C., says the Grits are here to stay.

"There are a lot of armchair strategists ... and I think a lot of people in Canada appreciate what the Liberal Party has done," she said.

Still, Murray isn't complacent about Monday's vote. "No candidate ever feels that their seat is safe in an election," she said.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Rob Brown