I don't think the NDP wants to be blamed for handing over the government to Skippy, so they're probably going to continue their timidity in their role as junior partners in the confidence and supply agreement.
Agreed. Layton got blamed in 2006 by many on left over Harper winning even though wasn't his fault. I mean it was voters who made decision but agreed want to avoid that. I think bigger problem both parties face is changing electorate. Loss of Red Wall in UK and Obama-Trump counties are not unique to respective places, we are seeing same thing. Main thing is parties need to pivot. For Liberals upper middle class suburbs much like Biden is where they will compensate and already have by and large. For NDP, urban core ridings is where they will make up for potential loss of blue collar resource based ones.
So even though things not looking good for NDP now, I do think NDP can still gain seats. If they were to sweep downtown Toronto, gain Halifax, a few in Montreal like Laurier-Sainte Marie, maybe another seat or two in Edmonton, a few left leaning in Lower Mainland, that could offset the more blue collar ones many expect them to lose (not saying they will but real risk).
Agreed -- and they're well poised to gain the northern Saskatchewan seat (or at least just as likely as the Liberals depending on the candidate) following redistribution, plus they can still hold the northern Manitoba one and Nunavut (and gaining NWT is a possibility) and at least some of the less urban Vancouver Island ones. There's really only 5 or 6 rural non-Indigenous working class ridings the NDP holds right now (2 in northern Ontario, two on Vancouver Island, one in the BC interior, and maybe Skeena although that one also has a large Indigenous population). So really the realignment is already well on its way for the NDP and they are in a good position to have net gains even with a similar share of the popular vote if Libs fall a bit in urban cores.
