The Mysterious Appeal of Stephen Harper

2013: The Year of the Democracy Coalition? | By Murray Dobbin | Counterpunch | Read article

“As for the NDP, every progressive in Canada should be collaring their NDP friends (and emailing MPs) and giving them a wake-up call: ask them if they care more about their precious party than they do about their country. If their answer is unclear tell them the party will not get another cent from you until they get on side with a co-operation strategy. The next fundraising letter you get should remain unopened until this happens. This is the year to do it. By December we need to know that the Conservatives will be headed for the dust bin in 2015.”

The Grits and NDP might as well form an electoral coalition as the New Democrats have moved far enough to the right to be nearly indistinguishable from the Liberals. In fact, as this point the NDP may be past salvaging for the left in Canada. Perhaps organized labour should divorce itself from the NDP, who seem keen on the idea anyway, and participate in the formation of a new alliance of leftwing groups comparable to the Front de Gauche, Syriza or Quebec Solidaire.