In Scott Feschuk's latest comment in Macleans (no link yet, you'll have to go buy the latest issue) he muses that it is time for a Liberal-NDP coalition.
...Dion should offer Layton cabinet seats in a Liberal-NDP coalition government.
...And the Liberal leader should propose some form of strategic campaigning.
It makes sense to me that Feschuk would want to find some creative way to get the Liberals back in power but I've got some news for the likes of Scott Feschuk - Jack Layton doesn't want to save the Liberals, he wants to bury them. You might think that is delusional (and I might agree with you) but that is clearly the NDPs new goal. In short their best case scenario has shifted from the "Think Twice" Liberal minority propped up by the NDP to a NDP minority government propped up by the Liberals.
Comments (6)
Neither side is up for either of those scenarios, really, Scott Feschuk notwithstanding. They’re both after single-party governments of their very own.
Posted by Idealistic Pragmatist | November 3, 2007 6:05 PM
Posted on November 3, 2007 18:05
It is beyond delusional to think the NDP could form a majority government in anytime in the near future.
Posted by Greg Staples | November 3, 2007 8:30 PM
Posted on November 3, 2007 20:30
They’re both after single-party governments of their very own.
Indeed. It has to do with the number of supporters and hangers-on who would need to be given tax-funded sinecures in the event that they actually achieved power. Those who are motivated to work to get these parties elected are not exactly the kind of peeps who confident of their own ability to be successful in the private, non-subsidized economy. They all believe that government can and should do nearly everything for everyone - but they are also aware that the spigot of free tax money at any given time has a limited amount of extra capacity ready to be tapped. It would take a decade or more in the wilderness begging from the Conservatives for jobs in the welfare industry, before they would seriously consider teaming up to make a really big score.
Posted by Dogmatic Realist | November 4, 2007 12:27 PM
Posted on November 4, 2007 12:27
Greg,
You should check out today’s Susan Delacourt article on this topic. http://www.thestar.com/News/article/273529
I think some of her conclusions are preposterous, but the MSM are starting to agree with your basic premise, that the NDP wants to replace the Liberals.
Posted by PlaidShirt | November 5, 2007 11:55 AM
Posted on November 5, 2007 11:55
Why delusional for Layton? He, like Harper, smells blood. Thin, watery, chilly blood oozing from gashes in the flounder who is purportedly the leader of the Liberal Party. Layton is certainly annoying, but he isn’t stupid. He knows the NDP won’t be forming government any time soon, but he’ll settle for becoming Canada’s Natural Opposition Party. Personally, I hope he succeeds. We simply don’t need the Liberals. Between the screeching socialists and an emboldened CPC, both battling for the right to extort money from you and to tell you how to live, the so called “middle” becomes the classical liberal alternative to both statist factions, rather than the current mushy, timorous, insipid Canadian political centre, inhabited by everyone who’s afraid to harbour an opinion.
So say I, and verily shall it come to pass. Yea, verily. Yeah. Verily.
Posted by The Needle | November 5, 2007 3:37 PM
Posted on November 5, 2007 15:37
Layton - delusional? You don’t say …
If there is strategic campaigning, it will happen at the riding level. The Liberals only need a +10 result in the next election. Dion’s expectations bar is so low, even Gary Lunn could jump over it.
Posted by Anon | November 5, 2007 10:07 PM
Posted on November 5, 2007 22:07