Elections Across the Land

2011 seems to be the year of elections in Canada.  First was the remarkable federal election May 2 that finally brought Stephen Harper and the Conservatives a majority with 166 seats. The late Jack Layton's NDP won an historic victory of 103 seats becoming the official opposition.  The Liberals on the other hand suffered an historic loss coming in third with only 34 seats. The Bloc lost all but 4 four seats losing official party status in the House.  The only leader left standing was PM Stephen Harper after Layton's untimely death.  The other parties are now in leadership mode.

Now we're approaching provincial election season this fall, with Ontario, Manitoba, PEI and other provinces  going to the polls. In Alberta later this month both the governing PC's and the opposition Liberals will be choosing new leaders.  A general election after that  is at the discretion  of the new leader and premier of the PC"s. They have until March 2013 to call one.


One word of caution to all voters everywhere, before you go to the polls, please do your homework. Examine every candidate, who they are and what they actually stand for.  Pay close attention to every detail in the campaign platforms. In other words read the fine print.

Above all take the time, have your say and get out and vote!  Yours, and your family's future is on the line.

Will the NDP and Libs Merge?

There sure has been a lot of talk about the NDP and the Liberals merging since Jack Layton's untimely death.

There has been musings by members in both parties. The always outspoken NDP MP Pat Martin says he'll take up the mantle of merger in the NDP leadership if no one else does. Liberal MP Denis Corderre thinks a merger is worth thinking about.

But both interm Liberal leader Bob Rae and NDP president and potential leadership hopeful Brian Topp dismisses the whole thing.

Some compare an NDP/Liberal merger with the merger between the old Progressive Conservative  and the Reform/Alliance parties.
Timing aside, a Liberal-NDP merger makes sense. There is strength in numbers as the former Progressive Conservative and Reform/Alliance parties learned. The centre right and right became the government through pragmatic co-operation and political self-interest. 

Not quite the same though.  The merger between the Reform and the PC's was a family reunification. The Conservative family fractured in the late '80's during the Mulroney administration because of some in the family becoming frustrated. Thus the Reform party was formed. The PC's suffered an historic loss in '93 that resulted in being reduced to two seats. After languishing in the wilderness for years, they decided to get back together. It took patience, hard work and time, a long time.  It took over ten years to get their act together.

Getting the Dippers and the Libs together would be a much larger and difficult task. It's not going to happen overnight. The NDP and the Libs have always been two separate parties. Still even though the Libs have drifted to the more and more to the left there's no guarantee  that all members of both parties would become members of a new merged party. Blue liberals would just go to the  Conservatives and the radical far left in the NDP I believe would leave too and who knows where they would go, the communist party, maybe they would  form a new party.  Who knows?

This whole merger thing  will probably depend on who emerges as permanent leaders in both parties. It sure will be interesting though to watch what happens  in the months and years ahead.