Sunday, September 27, 2009

Some sort of NDP-Liberal election arrangement?

Neither Michael Ignatieff are going to see a Liberal government in his lifetime. They are stuck lower than the CPC's lock on 30% of the electorate (the Stupid and Greedy 30%) and the NDP and the BQ aren't going to go anywhere very soon.

At the end of the day, the Liberals have to accept that there's a social democratic party to their left that makes their hopes to be able to screw-over progressives in their devotion to corporate interests as easily as the Democratic Party USA has it forever impossible.

The NDP has never been able to figure out which it hates more: the lumpen greed-freak cromagnons of the CPC or the slimy betrayers in the Liberal Party. The former tries to reinvent this country in the image of stupid and the latter continues to play use progressive rhetoric to steal votes that should have gone to the NDP if those voters were seriously in favour of what they thought they were voting for.

As it stands though, even without stephen harper (who has been absolutely astounding in his stubbornness, arrogance, and all around shit-hole-ish-ness) the Liberal vision of Canada is simply NOT as repulsive as the CPC's. And with stephen harper, there can be no real "deals."

Ignatieff's incredibly ill-time election call [i'll add, moronically, imbecile-ickly ill-timed] election call aside, the Liberals are where the power is. And where decent-assed voters are.

The NDP AND THE LIBERALS ... are going to have to realize ... long story short: some sort of agreement not to run against each other, ... or else.

5 comments:

croghan27 said...

"The NDP AND THE LIBERALS ... are going to have to realize ... long story short: some sort of agreement not to run against each other, ... or else. "

Eh? as in HUH?

Maybe work out an agreement with the CPC to defeat the LPC ... you are supposing that the Liberals are different than Harpers legions ....

Go suggest this to Elizabeth May ... OOPs she already did that!

ADHR said...

You really have to look at the swings, thwap. It's not clear that Liberal support would necessarily go to the NDP if the Liberal candidate withdrew (as, under your scenario, would happen in, say, most of BC); and similarly in the other direction if the NDP candidate withdrew (as would happen in, say, most of Ontario).

Furthermore, based on the current numbers being touted, it's not clear that even if every Liberal vote went NDP and every NDP vote went Liberal (in the relevant scenarios) there'd be enough Liberals + New Democrats to form a government rather than the Conservatives.

I continue to maintain that the way forward is over the corpse of the Liberal Party of Canada.

thwap said...

folks,

the Liberal-Green alliance was an attempt to bury the NDP.

the Libs have to get serious about their inability to destroy the NDP and to get more voters than harper has.

it'd be much healthier if the Liberals died and Canadians were given a clear choice between Canadian values and the stew of insanity of the harpercons. but that's not the case right now.

whether it would work or not, i guess some number-crunching would be in order, but i don't see that it couldn't work.

That guy said...

The key (as per usual) is Quebec. Without the dominance of the Bloc, the path to a majority would be a lot easier. As it is, getting a majority is surprisingly tough; the only reason Chretien was able to do it repeatedly was that his opposition on the right was such a complete mess for so long (thanks, Brian!).

So, I'd say the problem is a slightly different one: until and unless the Bloc collapses, the NDP and Liberals are going to have to learn to work together -- maybe not during elections but certainly while Parliament is sitting -- or continue to slide into irrelevance.

thwap said...

Which means swallowing their mutual disgust for one another, in the interests of the country.

Which is kinda what happened with the Layton-Dion coalition. Which is why it was such a terrible thing when G-G gave harper his do-over and why it is so terrible that Ignatieff's cowardice and misdirectedness compelled him to nail the coffin shut.