XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: sk.politics, man.politics, mtl.general   
   From: Paula@nyet.ca   
      
   If you're from the Liberal or NDP camp, and you're concerned about this - send   
   an email to your party's leader and tell him so.   
   They must learn to put their differences aside and do what the majority of the   
   electorate is wanting now:  a COALITION party to challenge Harper's Cons.   
      
   Time over for party leader squabbles. . . . start thinking of what is best for   
   the people of this country.  And it sure as hell hasn't been the Harper   
   Conservatives.   
   ___________________________________________   
   December 22, 2014 - Macleans   
      
      
   Left-wing lock:  Will the NDP and Liberals split the progressive vote?   
      
   Supporters of the left are worried the parties could once again cannibalize the   
   vote   
      
      
   Bitter political enemies Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair will go at it alone   
   in the 2015 election.  The Liberal Party leader and his NDP homologue have all   
   but ruled out any sort of non-aggression pact even as both parties chase the   
   left-leaning electorate.  “There are some very, very big impediments to   
   forming   
   a coalition with the NDP.  Which is why I am against it,” Trudeau recently   
   told   
   Postmedia News.   
      
   Few people are happier about this than Conservative MP Erin O’Toole.  On   
   several key policies, he says, the NDP and the Liberals seem to be morphing   
   into one progressive blob.  It raises the distinct possibility of a split in   
   the progressive vote in the 2015 election—and thus making O’Toole’s job   
   on the   
   Conservative’s re-election campaign team that much easier.   
      
   Trudeau’s denial of a potential coalition aside, O’Toole sees the   
   Conservatives   
   bringing up the possibility of such a thing during the election campaign.  “I   
   don’t think Canadians would be comfortable with a firm left coalition of NDP   
   and Liberals.”       <<=== [ seems 60% would ]   
      
   The two parties are undeniably close on a variety of issues.  Both were against   
   Canada’s participation in the mission against Islamic State; both are in   
   favour   
   of a loosening of Canada’s marijuana laws—decriminalization in the NDP’s   
   case,   
   legalization for the Liberals.  Both favour some form of childcare strategy,   
   and have made loud noises about the strains on the country’s middle class.   
   Under leader Thomas Mulcair, the NDP’s position on Israel has edged closer to   
   that of the Liberals, while the Liberal Party has begun courting the NDP’s   
   traditional territory of organized labour.   
      
   The Liberals’ leftward tilt is in part to regain territory in Quebec, where   
   the   
   party has yet to fully recover from its scandal-plagued tenure in the   
   mid-2000s.  Trudeau’s decision to oppose the mission in Iraq played well in   
   Quebec, where support for military intervention is typically the lowest in the   
   country.  The NDP has the lion’s share of the seats in the province, and   
   Mulcair remains the most popular federal leader, according to polls.  Yet   
   Trudeau has revived the Liberal brand somewhat in Quebec, and the party has far   
   outpaced its opposition in fundraising numbers.   
      
   Liberal and NDP operatives tend to tiptoe around a potential split of the   
   progressive vote—though without publicly acknowledging the similarities   
   between   
   the parties.  “The Liberal Party must work hard to show a more responsible,   
   more progressive vision for the country,” says Liberal Party communications   
   director Kate Purchase, who says there will be “robust competition between   
   the   
   NDP and the Liberal Party.”  NDP national director Anne McGrath, meanwhile,   
   says the progressive vote can’t be split.  “That would imply that the   
   Liberals   
   are a progressive party,” she tells Maclean’s.   
      
   This stubborn refusal to yield—in the form of a party merger, or at least a   
   non-aggression pact in key ridings—is a source of frustration amongst many on   
   the left, who see a possible repeat of the 2011 election.   
      
   That year, the Conservatives were able to secure a majority thanks largely to a   
   split of the centre-left vote in Ontario.  “It’s a head-in-the-sand   
   mentality.   
     Anytime the issue of the two parties cannibalizing the vote comes up, the   
   answer from either is, ‘We’re going to run someone in every riding and win   
   the   
   next majority government,’ ” says Pascal Zamprelli, a former Liberal   
   nomination   
   candidate who volunteers for the party.  “Maybe, but it’s unrealistic to   
   think   
   vote-splitting doesn’t hurt.”   
      
   Avoiding a split of the left-leaning vote may fall to outside organizations   
   like Lead Now.  Ultimately, the Vancouver-based advocacy group wants electoral   
   reform.  In the interim, it is organizing strategic voting initiatives in   
   ridings where the Conservative candidate won by less than 50 per cent in 2011.   
     There were 59 such ridings, according to data compiled by Pundits’ Guide.)   
      
   “We’re basically saying if the parties won’t cooperate before the   
   election,   
   then we are going to organize voters across party lines to defeat conservative   
   candidates,” says Lead Now executive director Jamie Biggar, adding his group   
   has already set up teams in 15 ridings.  “Why is Stephen Harper in power   
   today?   
     Because in 2003 he ended vote splitting on the right” with the merger   
   between   
   the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance.   
      
   The NDP has trended downward in the polls as of late, and has been stung by a   
   string of by-election losses.  Perversely enough, this is one of O’Toole’s   
   concerns in the coming year “In Ontario, we need a viable NDP,” he says, if   
   only to steal away Liberal votes.  The Conservatives also need the Liberal   
   Party to continue its leftward shift and convince NDP supporters to vote red.   
     Erin O’Toole hopes his opponents are wildly successful.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)