Paul Adams writes that it will probably take another election defeat before the Liberals and the NDP decide there is good reason for them to work together. Each party has its champion of cooperation:
Like Nathan Cullen in the NDP race last year, [Joyce] Murray has presented a credible progressive version of her party’s traditions while also arguing for party cooperation. And she’s attracted significant support — even though leadership races are when party supporters are at their most partisan.
Of course, we all know she won’t actually win.
The old ways die hard. And co-operation does not appear on either party's radar screen. That said,
there is a very slight possibility that there will be yet another opening to the idea before the 2015 election. If the Conservatives were to start polling quite a bit stronger — say nearer the 40 per cent mark — and the Liberal and the NDP were deadlocked in the mid-20 per cent range for long enough, there might be internal and external pressures for Trudeau and Mulcair to temper their intransigence about cooperation.
Regardless of polls, the first step in a progressive restoration is for the Liberals and the NDP to stop firing at each other:
A good starting point would be to look at the agreement signed by Jack Layton and Stéphane Dion when they tried to dislodge the Harper Conservatives in 2008. That would at least get the parties working together instead of against each other.
The Liberals and the Dippers don't have to re-invent the wheel. But they do need to realize that, rather than one party co-opting the other -- which was what happened when the Reform Party captured the old Progressive Conservatives -- they have to come to some detente.
Stephen Harper is betting that they won't. And, so far, his bet has paid off.
8 comments:
Everyone is continuing to ignore the possibility that the LPC will rebound and actually return to majority government on their own. I suspect that it really might happen. Though the opposition against the Harpercons has split the vote, they have never really been as split as the conservatives were during what was for them the "dark" times of the Chretien years.
And in the end, it seems to me that the LPC is closer to the Conservatives than they are to the NDP anyway, so to talk of a split of the left is a non sequitur.
At the higher level, I think that what seems clear is that we are facing years of political instability and what might be a continually changing landscape. The only real question for me is will people finally wake up to the dangers of corporatism and the role that ALL the parties have played in its promotion?
I agree that no one's hands are clean, Kirby.
One of the open questions in the next election will be how many of the NDP seats in Quebec will revert to the BQ?
We still face the possibility of a four way split of the opposition.
After reading Chantal Hebert's sobering assessment of the Liberal race last week (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/03/04/can_liberals_find_their_way_from_mediocrity_to_a_bright_future_hbert.html), Owen, I came to the same conclusion that Adams has drawn. There is little doubt in my mind that after one more defeat, both the Liberals and the NDP will yield to the inevitable and effect the kind of co-operation that Joyce Murray has been so earnestly advocating.
Unfortunately, however, one has to wonder how much more damage will be done to Canada before the leaders of the two aforementioned parties put the good of the country above their own egos and lust for power.
Exactly, Lorne. Mr. Harper claims that we won't recognize Canada when he's finished.
And, unless the leaders of the two parties put country ahead of party, they won't recognize the Canada they inherit.
After watching what Harper has accomplished since 2011 (2 years) via a majority government and omnibus bills.. just think what damage he can do in the next 6 years.. that would be 6 more omnibus bills like the last two.
I've whined on a few blogs lately about the horrendous risks to Canada and Canadians if opposition parties and opposition candidates can't figure out the math here and the 1st past the post scoring system.
This is a Prime Minister that would like to repeal The Charter of Rights and Freedom and extinguish all First Nations Treaties. If he wins another majority look for Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries and Oceans to be rolled into one ministry. The Office for Ethical Freedom Outdoors !! And the Coast Guard to be folded into the Defense ministry.
I hope some bright journo goes after all correspondence between the PMO, DFO, CFIA and the BC Government re virus infected farmed salmon tests, muzzling, cover-up and denial. We know they had to communicate with various alarmed USA agencies and other nations agencies.. what with 80% of Canada's farmed salmon being exported.
Maybe we'll get lucky and they haven't had time to shred, redact (for client/salmon privilege ) it all or did it all via personal email like the BC Government !
We know the State of Washington is currently researching the impact of tanker traffic, noise pollution, oil spills etc on their resident killer whale pods.. even if Canada's all knowing government doesn't care if our local orca pods, cetateans, and other marine life are run over, exterminated or driven away.. or just collapse when the keystone species - wild salmon die off.
Hard to believe such a vast majority of elected politicians, public servants, bureaucrats and hacks could be such shameless and betraying ignorant stewards of this country.. and so un-Canadian
It's always seemed to me, salamander, that the truly ignorant like to present themselves as know-it-alls. They are like Captain Ahab, chasing that while whale. They will sink the ship to get their revenge.
And, as you say, if the opposition parties make it possible for them to wreck their revenge -- on government, on the environment, on the poor -- the ship will go down.
I said exactly the same as Adams has years ago if anyone has the endurance to go through the Galloping Beaver archives. I know I don't. I took enough ridicule and abuse for it then. From all sides. There might have been some who agreed with me but mostly kept silent for fear the ridiculers would get after them too. It was not a fun time and pretty much made me give up blogging.
It's not easy advocating ideas that are ahead of where most people are, Dana.
But, as Victor Hugo wrote, "there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come."
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