Liberals polling lowest in 17 years

[Filuwaúrdjan]

An EKOS poll as well... Good Lord... maybe Canada's strange habit (in a multi-party country) of having a liberal party larger than it's socialist party is about to end. Probably not, but hey; I can always dream.

Btw, have you noticed that Layton looks a bit like Ramsey MacDonald?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

By-election in Labrador has to be called soon...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yeah, I don't think the NDP has much of a good chance. People are morse scared of them then the Conservatives. A good reason why the Liberals keep on getting elected, and why when we get tired of them we go to the right instead of the left.

The main problems are fiscal responsibility... and have been since the party was formed in the '60's.

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Rae was elected because the NDP seemed a safe option due to him being very much a moderate (in that respect he predated New Labour and I'm pretty sure he influenced some people involved in it) and just not being that like that arrogrant prick of a premier (Peterson IIRC).
What he did wrong (and why it's taken until about now for the Ontario NDP to rebuild in some areas) was to introduce anti-union legislation (the social contract it was called IIRC) which at a stroke sent the NDP's base packing often, ironically, the the Harris Tories.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes, that's what I meant. People are scared of the NDP because they believe they are fiscially irresponsible.  Although, they seem to be doing a fine job in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

True. They need to parachute some provincial Dippers from both provinces into winnable seats (and due to the freak result in Saskatchewan last time there's a lot of Reformatory M.P's with tiny majorities...)

The NDP still hasn't rebuilt here, and will take a long time before they do. First, they have to get rid of their leader, and get a new one who wasn't an MPP during the Rae years. Now is a good time, because of the unpopularity of the Liberals and people being wary of the tories because of what Harris has done.  However, it may just be too soon.

I don't mean rebuild as in get back to where they were when Rae was leader (that could take a while...) I mean getting back up to their more traditional levels of support.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'd like a Canadian election a month or so after the U.K one