What is going on in NDP land? Exhibit A: the Progressive Economics Forum. Outside of Erin Weir the posts have all been downright glum.
Hello is anybody home?
You just fkin took Qubec.
Hello get off the Prozac!
While there is definitely a low here it is not the NDP which handed the Conservatives a majority it is the broken, incontinent party that is the LPC. That is not my opinion it is the opinion of Liberal like Warren Kinsella. The idea that a weak NDP performance would have helped the Liberals is fanciful.
But there is also a high here.
The NDP not only took Quebec it got back a good deal of the protest vote in BC. And it is exactly the self same wave of protest that Stephen Harper helped cultivate and then surfed to a majority. This is the long game and given last night’s results the NDP is in very good shape. As I commented over at the PEF, if the Conservatives had come from where the NDP came from they would be plotting world domination. I would humbly suggest nothing less is in order for the NDP.
If they do not believe their own success who will? Try being hegemonic would you.
Relentlessly Progressive Political Economy 
Couldn’t agree more. NDP have 4 years to construct a citizens agenda and attract excellent candidates. A bank exec or chief trader would be good.
Why would a social democratic party want to start filling its ranks with bank executives and bond traders? I don’t see how evolving into an elite party magically constructs a ‘citizens agenda’ and constitutes ‘excellent candidates’.
An NDP win would be very bad for then this time. Recession on the way, cuts to be made, inexperienced team. Next time go for gold, silver was alway the top prize this time.
Agreed. It is a long game.
The NDP has been slowly but surely gaining seats and support election by election since 2004. And, they have just taken a giant step forward, almost tripling their vote and gaining another 2 million in support. Any further increase will put them into minority government territory (or, at least, official opposition to a minority government).
NDPers are a bit down at the moment as it seemed that there was a good chance that they would, yesterday, be looking at another minority Harper government, which would have given them a much stronger position. And, there was a very slim chance that they may have themselves become a minority government. Instead, they face a majority Harper government. But, they have gained a huge victory with their seat increase and will have to tough it out against a majority Harper Conservative government for a full term.
But being the official opposition comes with perks, one of these being more media exposure. The media won’t be able to continue to ignore the NDP as much as it has in the past.
Overall, it is a big step forward in seats and popular support and now exposure. I’m sure they are raring to go and will be up for the task as they always have been.
I’m still formulating the various downsides to what has happened. However, it is correct say that the long game is in play. Furthermore, the LPC has no one to blame for this but themselves. Had they done their job, the NDP would not have been able to surge. Ironically, the LPC was out-competed by the social democrats.
Look the LPC had no chance in Quebec. None. They are simply detested.
The NDP breakthrough in Quebec is too much, too fast and highly tenuous. They have nowhere to go but down. We all know that it includes a bunch of folks who aren’t ready for prime time. I suspect tensions will emerge between the Quebec members of caucus and the Ontario and BC members. Personally, I agree with Layton’s approach to Quebec, but many New Democrats do not.
Of course, the NDP strength (and party unity) is highly dependent upon Layton’s personal popularity (and Liberal weakness). Is this likely to be sustained? And I won’t even go into the political and ideological limitations of the NDP.
A Con majority is a big problem. I’m glad that the NDP is the official opposition rather than the Libs, but it feels like small consolation.
Agreed but as a party you take the break you are given and try to exploit it while you have it. The NDP must grow into its new shoes not sit back and say my shoes are too big I do not want them.
I think some of the New Dem bloggers have decided to just sit back for a day or 2 while the ‘wailing and gnashing of teeth’ and lashing out occurs in certain Liberal blogging circles:
Here … Here …. Here …. and Here.
I think some progressives need a bit of time to lick their wounds, New Dems are not going to exacerbate the situation.
I will agree that the NDP riding victories and vote improvements did not make Harper get his majority. If there had been no NDP, the Liberals would have still lost. Not all 100 percent of the the NDP votes are transferable to the Liberals. Some NDP voters would vote Conservative or stay home if given the chance. I also don’t think a formal Liberal-NDP merger would have done much good. Harper would have still got his majority.
The NDP will the the lead opposition party. It needs policies that are realistic. It needs to show that it is the government-in-waiting. Also, within Parliament, the NDP MPs need to prioritize the issues that are important to them and Canadians. Don’t try to be all things to all Canadians.
I’m extremely disgusted to see that the whole world will have to be plunged in more recession because people, thanks to total media control, listen to the nonsense peddled by the criminals who crashed the world economy, the criminals who tell everyone the need to cut, cut cut, that the little people must take the hit for their crimes. Harper promises these horrors and more and it will be sold as a fait accompli, an inevitability, the usual there is no alternative. My fear is that when it’s finished people will accept the New Normal. After all, that’s what happened after Mulroney and John Crow damaged the economy. I’m losing all hope really. We’re headed to Hell, we have leaders who want to harm most people, we have elites who hate this country and its people who ingest the most amoral filth, possessed by evil.
The media has convinced people that Harper has done a great job with the economy when unemployment remains very high. This is because Mulroney, Crow and later the Liberals set forth high unemployment and austerity policies that convinced people that this was an inevitability. Any blame always seems to be transferred to non-Conservative provincial premiers. It’s always the same. I hate them so much. The health of a country unfortunately is a function of the morality and attitudes of the elite. The elite in Canada is a degenerate group who are dragging the country to Hell, as are the elites of other Western countries.