The Liberals, it seems, are not going to fall into the trap that has consumed the Democratic Party in the US - they're not going to portray themselves as conservatives.
In fact, the LPC has decided to campaign to the left, into Layton territory, to try to draw away NDP support or at least enough of it to get a winning edge on Harper's Conservatives.
Will it work? It had better. The Liberals need to reclaim their hold on Canada's political centre by robustly pushing the NDP toward their true base out on the left and the SoCons of Harper back where they know they really want to be - out of the far right limb.
Harper has been playing directly from the Bush/Rove playbook - lifting policies, even buzzwords, from the Repugs over the war on terror, global warming and the economy. The Bush/Rove policies lie in tatters, their nation enfeebled and its future more than uncertain. Maybe it's time SHarper was depicted for what he really is - Bush's sycophant.
8 comments:
it would be far more prudent to try and draw from both the "right" and the "left". Last time I checked the NDP had a smaller slice of the pie than the Conservatives. Not to mention the whack of former PC MPs in Dion's caucus would be better utilized to draw on that pool of unhappy voters.
The 'clear course' looks an awful lot like the old course.
In 2004 and in 2005/06, Paul Martin campaigned claiming that he 'shared NDP values,' and that only a Liberal vote could stop the scary Conservatives.
The result of these Liberal attempts to 'push back' the NDP on the left? Increased seat and vote totals for the NDP.
Why would this plan work the third time when it failed the first two?
Actually, it reminds of 1993 campaign. Isn't that the campaign where national childcare received its first stillbirth, and again, in 1997, 2003, and after enacted in 2006, died quickly with election of Harper.
Everybody knows its a campaign strategy of the libs. But one just has to watch the libs and Dion sit on their hands as Harper killed off Kyoto, and enacted taxcuts for corporations in the throne speech to know where the real priorities lie - in getting power! How that fits with poverty is a total misrecognition to lib partisans.
I know you NDP folks won't like the idea of the Liberals pushing back but so what? Without Layton, Harper wouldn't be PM now, so thank you very much. And, Sean, you're right. Dion does need to go for the centre also but, in this country (thankfully), the centre is still well to the left of Harper when he shows his true colours.
'Without Layton, Harper wouldn't be PM now, so thank you very much.'
Try 'without Paul Martin and the Liberals' poor record and poorer campaign, Stephen Harper wouldn't be PM now.'
Whenever Liberal revisionists tell themselves the tale of their loss of power in 2006, they leave an important character out of the story: The Canadian Voter.
Ending more than a decade of broken promises and belated half-measures on a range of issues, and mired in a crisis of their own making (that wasn't Jack Layton handing envelopes of money across restaurant tables in Quebec), the Liberals went before the population several weeks before they initially had planned to do so (as announced by Martin) and failed to persuade enough Canadian voters to keep themselves in power.
It was those voters who sent the Liberals from office, not the NDP, and they did so on the basis of the Liberals' record and their campaign: the responsibility for the Liberals' loss lies squarely with themselves.
It is, finally, more than ironic that at the very moment Liberals are blogging about the NDP's supposed responsibility for Stephen Harper, Liberal MPs are standing up in the House of Commons, voicing their loud but empty criticism of Bill C-28, the budget implementation bill--empty because they won't actually do anything about this budget bill they claim is so bad for the country.
Who's responsible for Stephen Harper governing like he has a majority? Not the NDP.
Nice try Steve but you're full of it. Layton did everything he could to ensure Harper was seated on the throne by piling on Martin (and quite unfairly) while giving Harper a completely free ride. That's why the Canadian people will never elect an NDP government. You guys dodge responsibility at every turn.
If Dion proceeds with this electoral programme, we are in for a very interesting election. Sometimes, a dynamic leader can drag the core further to the left/right than the party normally occupies (see Trudeau and Harris). Dion isn't a dynamic leader (pause for laughter). If he moves too far to the left, it is very likely that a healthy portion of the Liberal centre/right will simply stay home. We saw this happen in the recent Ontario election when a large number of the PC core, who didn't like Faith Based Schools but couldn't bring themselves to vote Liberal, simply stayed away. With some of Liberal centre/right group voting Conservative and many just staying away, the possibilities for split voting, with the Conservative candidate coming up the middle, is significantly enhanced. An election, where the NDPers spend most of their time fighting Liberals just to hold the ground they currently occupy, and the run on the left/govern on the right Liberals spending most of their time convincing NDPers they really mean it this time, leaves a near open field for Harper to reach Canadians with his message. Interesting times.
You may well be right, Ron. Yet, among the many challenges Dion faces, is one to bolster his party faithful and I think they're looking for a real differentiation between Dion and SHarper's social conservatism. BC still holds a lot of support for Harper's CPCs but a recent poll shows that support tanks when it comes to Harper forming a majority.
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