12.20.2016 04:23 PM

On CFRA now! My political top five surprises in 2016!


7 Comments

  1. Kevin Laddle says:

    I wouldn’t say the NDP has collapsed so much as Trudeau’s extended honeymoon has squeezed out all competition — CPC, NDP, Greens, BQ, you name it.

    Get back to me when the NDP has chosen a new leader. I think you’ll find predictions of collapse were highly premature.

    • Charlie says:

      On the contrary, the NDP has collapsed. Though, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re dead… but they’re definitely on the cusp of irrelevance. And while I agree with you that the Liberals are occupying a great deal of political landscape and that has particularly hurt the New Democrats — the Conservatives simply have to choose a new leader to guide them into the future whereas the NDP are facing an existential identity crisis.

      Often, the demise of a political party is over exaggerated (its happened with the Conservatives and the Liberals) after a humiliating defeat, however, the predicament the NDP finds itself in currently is far worse than just a loss. The primary function of any successful party is to form government, but that possibility is now firmly out of the hands of the federal NDP. They now go back to being a faint “conscience” party as opposed to a viable governing party — and that is a genuine collapse from where they were just 2 years ago.

      The debacle at the party’s post election convention further deteriorated an already hurting party. There is a clear fracture between the only successful NDP faction in Canada that is Alberta and the failures coast to coast which is the rest of the NDP. The party is now adopted a “not interested in governing” policy and swung itself out of any contention. They have a leader in Tom Mulcair who is pathetically unpopular and irrelevant. All of this compounded by the sad reality that no one wants to lead this party.

      Just sitting around and waiting for the Liberals to slip up isn’t an option for survival. If thats how Dippers expect to “return to glory” than they haven’t any case to make to potential and will only lose more oxygen to the Liberals.

      • doconnor says:

        Th NDP was far worse off in 1992 when it lost official party status, rather then having its second higher number of MPs evet. The NDP has functioned for decades as a third patry. I don’t see why that is going to suddenly stop.

        • Charlie says:

          “Second best” really, really shouldn’t be a point of pride for New Democrats; especially considering that “second best” is still a phenomenal deflation from their previous election showing and still puts them at a distant third in the House compared to the other two major parties.

          I agree with you, I don’t see why the NDP should cease to function as a third party as it typically has, but thats not where the party saw itself after the 2011 election, and during the 2015 election. The prevailing narrative amongst Democrats was: “this is our time, the Liberals are finished, we can finally be the true progressive party Canadians have been seeking”. It was seen as a deserved ascension into power for Dippers.

          That clearly didn’t manifest into reality.

          So what is preventing the NDP from decaying further, possibly to non-status? The Conservatives will regain their lost seats from the NDP and Quebec has no potential for the orange team as the Liberals will clench their traditional home base for a long time. Dippers don’t have the prospects they think they do.

          The NDP shifted away from its “conscience party” identity a long time ago. Going back to that role means a massive failure in a decade long strategy. It also means that the NDP has to find a reason to exist beyond “we’re not liberals”, because the political landscape has changed drastically and thats not a viable reason anymore. If the NDP plan for the next decade is to wait Trudeau and the Liberals out, they’ll wind up like the Green party.

    • ottawacon says:

      I don’t think we really know what is going to happen with the NDP in Quebec. Polls aren’t exactly promising for them, and we have always known that as an institution they have been pretty thin in QC. With Mulcair gone, there really are a lot of potential outcomes in play their presence could unwind completely. Current support levels are just above the 1 seat mark they had in 2008. I expect the NDP will be more resilient in RoC, but there is a good chance that a window of opportunity has closed definitively.

  2. dave constable says:

    Mmh…Canadian military in Black Sea and Estonia…also in Iraq…and are we going to Mali merely to be markers for the French military there? Those are political issues. too.

  3. Russ says:

    Jack Layton asked Liberals to lend him their votes – they did – Trudeau called the loan

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