NOW magazine, for those who don’t know, is based out of Toronto and bills itself as “an alternative news and entertainment source”. One of it’s co-founders, Alice Klein, has written an article there in its most recent issue with the thesis being that the centre-left parties continued divisions make it far easier for Harper and his Conservatives to retain power, and that is unacceptable for those in particular who want a government that takes the environmental crisis seriously.
Klein in particular aims her sights at the NDP as the potential party which could make or break this coalition, and gives reasons why it should go for the idea. She argues that the NDP’s not wanting to cooperate with the Greens or the Liberals hurts it electorally, while cooperation would boost its fortunes.
Interesting article, although I already know that no one in the NDP will actually go for the idea, as we already have some of the membership accusing the author of being a Liberal, which may or may not be the case, though her bio certainly doesn’t indicate she’s one. Perhaps she is, or perhaps she’s a committed activist on the left who (in her mind) sees the big picture.
The last time there was a defining issue other then the environment, it was free trade in 1988. The 2 opposition parties (Liberal and NDP) who at the time both opposed free trade could have put aside their differences and formed a working coalition back then to ensure it failed, but they chose not to and run a traditional Canadian election - winner take all.. The result? A majority of voters voted for the combined 2 parties, but the electoral system handed the election to Brian Mulroney’s Conservatives, and free trade passed (which brings me in a roundabout way to the failings of our current electoral system, but I won’t go there now. You get my point).
I don’t see that happenning beyond a very limited scale (ie the May-Dion deal in NS), because of pride and self-interest and so on and so forth, and not just from the NDP. In the current electoral system we have (oops.. going back there), it is geared towards an adversarial system, and inevitable vote-splits occur because of that, unfortunately. It would take a massive amount of statesmanship on all sides to form the coalition Klein desires, and I really don’t see that happening right now - not unless the Green Party becomes more of a force at the national level - as they seem to be the only party willing to do it “for the greater good”.
Well it’s too the detriment of the NDP that they won’t consider the idea. As a party they are increasingly becoming irrelevant - which isn’t to say that can’t be easily turned around - due to their purely reactionary stance they’ve taken rather than looking forward.
There was a local paper here that suggested something similar about 6 weeks ago. The Scugog Standard <a href= "http://thescugogstandard.ca/Archives/november-07/november2-07/01editorial.html">editorial</a> took it one step further though and suggested that the Liberals and the NDP will have to merge, much like the Alliance and PC did.