Quote:
Originally Posted by *Stardust*
Maybe the 10-15% of the electorate that are pure socialist should start a new party of their own. (Perhaps a Canadian Labour Party?)
The New Democrats should keep aiming for the direction that Jack Layton started.
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They missed their once in a generation chance to displace the Liberals as the main party of the center-left, as they did in 1988 with Ed Broadbent.
Jack had the ideal political conditions for a breakthrough: he was a highly seasoned and charismatic leader, there was a political vacuum in Quebec and the Liberals had a dreadful leader in Ignatieff.
Now Justin Trudeau's Liberals own that vote. And Trudeau is governing as a left-Liberal and has done nothing to alienate progressive voters to a significant degree. As long as they stay there - the differences between the two remain small and more voters would leak to the Liberals.
They're better off trying to be a "party of conscience" at this point. I don't think they'd do any better if they stuck with Mulcair and remained an imitation centrist liberal party.