If you look at Stump's math, then not particularly. But I think this misses things like having a united election apparatus, more campaign money, a clear opponent to direct your attacks against, and so on. There are just intangibles that one can only hypothesize about.
A "united left" party would probably need a huge policy convention to work out whatever issues they want to stand for. And yeah, you'll probably peel some people off to the CPC on the Liberal side and perhaps a new labour movement starts based on people from the NDP side, but I can imagine that the new party would be a moderate left-of-centre party with common social policies and at least some similar economic policies with regards to social programs and revenue generation.
They have both a better platform and better candidates. What the hell do you want from them?
I'm 55 and well aware of Jean Chretien's reign. Trust me, your high opinion of him and other Liberal leaders is not a national opinion.
Sure, but then we are stuck with the only other solution - Liberals "infiltrate" (or merge with) the CPC and start to affect the party's policies internally at party conventions. lol
Yes, but what if you are fiscally conservative but believe in a woman's right to choose? It gets more complicated because it's not one or the other. Would you be happy saving a few dollars in taxes if it meant even less access to abortion clinics? That's up to centrist Liberals to decide, I suppose.
Ontario hates the NDP brand as much as Alberta hates the Liberal brand, so here we are. If there was only two choices, we have no idea what people would do.
Yeah, of course. But PR will never happen, so what can we do?
Apparently picking between the differences of the NDP and Liberals is more important to Ontario than getting the Conservatives out.
..or if the NDP gets a proper minority backed by the Liberals. Alternatively, we also have a chance of getting it with the Liberals since they want the study, and the last time they wanted a study we got MMP
Well, I'm just saying it's not as simple as "Liberals will never agree with the NDP" or "Liberals are more likely going to vote Conservative in a 2 party landscape". We just don't know because we haven't been forced to make the choice. My point is that maybe you agree with the CPC on every single fiscal issue but disagree with them on social issues - which is a position that the LPC occupy now - and if that's the case, it's not as easy as simply voting CPC because you happen to be in a higher tax bracket.
Perhaps a vote on some form of PR will happen, but based on the plebiscites in BC and Ontario, I just don't think most people want it... it will probably fail when it gets to the public.
They're not. We use the terms left and right but the major Canadian political parties are basically center. Even the NDP is considered to be more center now.
If AdScam had bn a Conservative thing, it would have been like water off a duck's back.
Which was exactly why they called it early.
You're one of my favourite joke characters.
same with the Quebec Liberals who cut off affiliation in the late 60s.
I'll be stuck here, unfortunately but if the Cons remain in power once I finish school and get my career, I will be moving to my aunt's house in Sweden. With the way the Cons are killing science, I might not even be able to find a job here anyway.
You must have missed the discussion earlier in the thread about it.
How else would they pay for all those social programs
I'm just being realistic. If you vote NDP in some Conservative wasteland in Alberta, you have no effect on anything. NDP doesn't get money from your vote and you just waste your time. It's a depressing reality but it is our reality.
I'm voting from California.
