Canada's Liberals Are Not THAT Desperate

Will the Liberals merge with the NDP? It ain’t going to happen.

Yes, there is speculation and there’ll be debate, but the likelihood of the leaderless NDP and the deflated federal Liberals merging into one cohesive party, seems as unlikely as ... well, as unlikely as the NDP winning 59 of 75 federal seats in Quebec.

Still, it won’t happen. Nor should it.

The only reason for the Liberals and NDP merging would be to more effectively oppose the majority Conservative government of Stephen Harper – a government that is doing a pretty good job for Canada.

Liberals and the NDP share some policies, but Liberals are not wedded to socialist ideology. Under the NDP there would be state capitalism, more looting the till for the comfort of those on top.

Merging the NDP and Liberals would be an admission by both of their endemic weakness. Although neither party has dynamic leadership at the moment, merging would not change that.

Of course, democracy works best with a vibrant opposition to challenge the government. Conservatives know (or should know) this.

When there’s weak opposition in Parliament – opposition develops within the ruling party. Remember when the Tory party under Kim Campbell was reduced to two pathetic seats in 1993?

Stephen Harper has won in three elections – each improving on previous results and now he has a comfortable majority. Perhaps the biggest change in mood is that those who once campaigned against Harper on the grounds that he was “scary,” now have reason to find it “scary” if any party except the Tories were in power.

Both Liberals and the NDP want power. Bob Rae, the interim Liberal leader, used to be in the NDP and that gives rise to suspicions that he’d favor merging. Surely that phase is past. Rae knows the NDP and knows merging would be fatal – unless, he’s some sort of a Manchurian candidate for socialism, which is stretching paranoia.

The NDP with 103 seats (59 of which are in Quebec) think they are on the rise. They aren’t, and will lose their Quebec seats next election. But they think their future is brighter than it is.

Remember when Jack Layton sought to stage a coup by getting the Liberals, NDP and Bloc to form a coalition and stampede the Governor General into giving them power after the 2008 election? The NDP finished fourth in 2008, and the coup attempt failed. Harper won a majority in the following election. Some dedication to democracy!

The NDP may want a merger with Liberals because they’d benefit most. But fear not, the Liberals will eventually be back with a persuasive leader – but not too soon, one hopes, because Canada is doing just fine with an “un-scary” PM in charge during these critical times.