You're not getting it, are you?
That they moved ahead of the Liberals doesn't matter squat. Why?
Because people STILL remained to the LEFT of the Conservatives.
If the Cons had gotten an increase in numbers to pull ahead of the Liberals, as you said, both in popular vote and in seats, they'd be in the majority, no question.
However.
They just BARELY pulled ahead of the Liberals in vote tally but lost in seats. If you look at the numbers between 2015's election, and this year, the Cons only increased their popular vote by half a million. The difference between what the Libs had in 2015 and what they lost this year, was over a million.
Meanwhile, the Bloc increased their numbers, and so did the Greens, by half a million EACH between 2015 and 2019.
Which in the end, makes UP for the losses the Liberals had, especially when you look at the separation of vote numbers between the Liberals and Conservatives being only 240,000.
The Cons had a disaster of an election when you look honestly at the numbers. To say anything else is being ignorant of what is going on, and the Cons have got to seriously get to work if they want to be viable in Canada as a party.