Federal Government & Politics II

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Yes, Wab could be a serious threat to them. The stars could be aligning for the complete and permanent demise of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Wouldn't that be a wonderful legacy for JT - to destroy your own party...........

People said that in 2011, and they came back in 2015. That said, part of me thinks that the LPC's apparent revival in 2015 was really just their "last hurrah" and they won't be a thing again going forward. Sort of like how the Union Nationale in Quebec, after losing power in 1960, managed to get one more term later on before disappearing. When you think about it, the LPC government JT assembled was quite precarious. Their re-elections in 2019 & 2021 were arguably more flukes than anything else, caused by Scheer being a terrible leader in 2019, and COVID creating a perfect one-time wedge issue that JT could exploit in 2021.

I think the entire "left of the Conservatives" group in Canada could probably live within one party, if that one party behaved more like the US Democrats by allowing multiple distinct camps within the party with individual MPs having free votes. The Democrats have people like Bernie Sanders in the same party along with people like Joe Manchin; mapped onto the Canadian spectrum that basically spans from the NDP all the way to the Red Tories. Individual Democrat congresspeople will often vote against their own President's laws & budgets if they disagree with them, and the Democrat Party's leadership often focuses on trying to maintain compromise between all the different factions; it's not like the caucus is reduced to voting machines like here.

A LPC-NDP merger with that kind of "open", unwhipped method of party discipline could be quite successful, I think.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

A LPC-NDP merger with that kind of "open", unwhipped method of party discipline could be quite successful, I think.

Such a reasonable center-left party with a free unwhipped caucus would totally be Canada's Natural Governing Party, I agree with you.

The Loony Left would still need a separate vehicle though, I'm pretty sure. So might as well let the NDP be that, and let the Libs stop courting the NDP's (few) voters so they can concentrate on the overwhelming majority of the electorate.

[GlassCity]

Yeah for current NDP and Liberal supporters to co-exist within a party you'd need leadership contests to become a much bigger deal, like American primaries, to give both supporter groups a sense of influence. Otherwise a 2-party system I'd think would be tenuous. I know common wisdom is FPTP systems support 2-party systems, but only knowing the American example, it feels like their ability to keep it either depends on a consensus model (with relatively moderate differences like before) or when one party goes legitimately crazy (like now).

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by lio45

Such a reasonable center-left party with a free unwhipped caucus would totally be Canada's Natural Governing Party, I agree with you.

The Loony Left would still need a separate vehicle though, I'm pretty sure. So might as well let the NDP be that, and let the Libs stop courting the NDP's (few) voters so they can concentrate on the overwhelming majority of the electorate.

Depends on how you define looney left. I'd put most of the Liberal party in there on a lot of issues and frankly a lot of Conservative provincial governments have drunk the woke koolaid and binge spending agenda.