Splitting the centre-left vote...

My own position is that the Liberals are almost as bad as the Conservatives. The marginal benefit of saving us from Harper is not worth it. Both parties are bankrupt and do not deserve our support. I do not think that Layton is any shining knight either but I will vote for the NDP because I approve many of their policies. The worst thing Canadians could do is to foster the Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum farce that you have in the states. The one presidential candidate who predicted the present financial crisis in the U.S. Ralph Nader receives nary a mention hardly in all the babble on CNN Fox news etc. As long as we continue electing the two mainstream parties we will not really have much choice. Even electing considerable numbers of other parties pressures other parties to adopt programs similar to theirs to try and lure voters away and back to the two party Procrustean bed.

Splitting the centre-left vote


Globe and Mail Update
September 23, 2008 at 8:35 AM EDT
Today's question: How do the Liberals, NDP and Greens deal with the fact they are splitting the centre-left vote in some parts of the country and how do the Tories take advantage of this?
Scott Reid, former director of communications for Paul Martin and a co-founder of the speechwriting firm Feschuk.Reid: Liberals take note: Jack Layton is trying to put an end to you. Not just win more seats. Not just raise his popular vote. Like Stephen Harper, he defines true victory as crippling the capacity of the Liberal Party to successfully compete in future elections.
That may seem like a far-flung notion but with some polls showing the Liberals drifting down to the low 20s and the NDP scratching up to the high teens, Mr. Layton sees the chance for a historic appeal.
Certainly, with the full influence of the Green vote impossible to gauge until after the debates the Liberals can take nothing for granted.
Mr. Layton's musings about a postelection coalition of the Liberals, NDP and Greens have a lot more to do with “help Jack” than “stop Harper.” He's attempting to reassure progressives it's safe to split their votes all over hell's half acre. But it's not.
Liberals must counter immediately. That begins by positioning themselves in the sensible centre rather than as the best of the left. They must emphasize their fiscal credentials, sharpen their critique of Mr. Harper and begin now with a blatant appeal to NDP and Green voters that the Liberals alone can keep the Conservatives from a majority.
Mr. Harper will exploit these factions by talking up the NDP in Quebec and even engaging Green Party Leader Elizabeth May in the debates. But it rests with the Liberals – beginning with their recalcitrant core voters. Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton are trying to kill your party. If you want to keep it, you'll have to defend it.
Goldy Hyder, former chief of staff to Joe Clark and currently senior vice-president with the communications firm Hill & Knowlton: In life and in politics, what goes around comes around. After having been the beneficiaries of a divided right that saw them win three consecutive majorities, the Liberal Party now finds itself as a part of the fractured left (with the NDP, BQ and, to a lesser extent, the Greens). While the outcome is not a given, this campaign suggests a fundamental realignment of the Canadian political spectrum is well under way.
For some time, the Liberal base and brand was so strong that it headed into federal elections with 30 per cent of the electorate in its camp. The same could not be said of the Conservative Party.
It can be argued that Stephen Harper conscientiously set out to level the playing field against the “natural governing party” by seeking to expand the traditional conservative base from rural, anglo, male, to include urban, francophone, minority communities, and women. And in doing so, Harper has moved the party closer to the centre (albeit still to the right of it).
Over the past two decades, Canadians have been moving more to the centre-right. Support for free trade, balanced budgets and paying down debt has taken hold even in provinces with NDP governments. Meanwhile the “new” Conservative Party's shift to its left meets Canadians in their comfort zone and creates an opportunity for the party to expand its base and strengthen its brand.
As for the left, perhaps it will come out of this election in need of engaging in its own “unite the left” exercise. There are already signs that such an effort is in the works at any cost. This week, Mr. Layton has mused that he would not rule out forming a coalition government with the Liberals if it would defeat the Tories. With Mr. Dion and Ms. May already working together, it seems there's a lot of love to go around on the left.
Peter Donolo, former director of communications for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and now a partner in the Strategic Counsel: If the opposition vote remains as diffuse as it is today, the Conservatives will be able to win the election just by standing still.