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In Québec, the NDP is No. 2
This article is almost a carbon-copy of the one that started this thread. I feel like in Québec (and nationally) the Liberals are getting increasingly desperate. They've gone to insulting the voters again with "a vote for the NDP is a vote for the Conservatives." It's almost the only argument they have left, and shows their contempt for democracy. I also never understood how the Liberals get to call themselves the party of national unity while they spent election after election tearing down the West and campaigning against the bogeymen of the prairies. I hope the Liberals get their just desserts and finish deep in the cellar in Québec. Go party of anglophones!
It might be a desperate strategy in Quebec. But nationaly its certainly not a desperate strategy, stampeding people away from the NDP. So far, the media has bought into it totally.
I dont know about in Quebec, but if you think its a desperate strategy nationaly, I question your judgement about the situation in Quebec. Although, from a distance, it does look like the Liberal strategy has no traction with anyone in Quebec.
I was hoping she would, and I don't know the inside story, except that she appears to be very busy again in media matters (not CBC though as far as I know).
The new candidate is Joanne Corbeil. I don't know her.
Feel free to question my judgment :) I think it is a desperate strategy for the Liberals whether it is effective or not. It just says that the Liberals are completely out of tricks, and since the only thing they really care about is winning power, it is them getting down on their knees and making the last minute appeal. The word "desperate" is not my own. It is the way a Liberal strategist described it to me.
Some Liberal strategist will pour molten lead on any strategy the LPC chooses, if not several of them. So that counts for nothing.
I think maybe we could agree that "desperate" generally implies people doing something when nothing else will work. Desperate also tends to mean unlikely to work. IE, since nothing else works, what the hell.
It is a morally bankrupt strategy. But that doesnt make it desperate. Although myself and others have argued that the LPC shying away from taking on the Conservatives is a sign of weakness- and long term weakness at that.
I'm not sure how many times the Liberals can go to the well with that holed bucket though, Ken. I think that Jack may have blunted it at least somewhat (he said, mixing his metaphors) by proactively declaring that a real strategic vote is a vote for the NDP - even as the Liberal meme was just getting started.
Certainly the Liberal strategic voting meme has had diminishing returns election after election after election since its high point in 1993.
The NPD's candidate in Riviere du Nord sounds pumped. The NDP finished second there in 2008.
Anonymouse
Where is Mulcair traveling to these days - that should give us an indication which ridings are in contention for the NPD?
I get the sense he is spending time in Outremont these days after having made a trip to the Saguenay region for the announcement of three candidates.
While Mulcair is modestly naming only five target ridings outside Outremont, The NDP's leading candidate in the Quebec City region, Raymond Cote, wants to expand the list: "he believes the 2011 vote will be marked by the election of the first New Democrat elected in the Quebec region. He gives himself the best chance of achieving this among the NDP candidates in the capital."
Another example of a 2008 star ("the only New Democrat in the region to get more than 6,000 votes") moving to a stronger riding. Maybe it will work?
"As for the Bloc, you don't score goals by staying on the bench!"
NDP gains on Bloc turf add tension to Layton-Duceppe rivalry
I think the analysis is kind of off in this article, but it's still nice to see the NDP continue to get attention in/on Québec. For federalist, progressive, anglophone babblers claiming they will vote BQ: What more do you need from the NDP to actually vote for them? Boom Boom has an actual QUALITY candidate. Unionist lives in Mulcair's riding. What does the NDP need to do to win your vote? Walk on water? Have Layton die and ressurect himself and continue fighting Harper in the Conservative heartlands of the West?
Whatever it is that he's doing, it's working for the NPD.
In the debate tonight, Duceppe will probably say again that only the BQ can stop/fight the Conservatives, but that's completely incorrect. Duceppe can't defeat Harper in Alberta, in rural BC, in the prairies, in rural Ontario, and in francophone and non-francophone pockets of the maritimes. Only Layton can do that. Only Layton is taking the battle over Quebeckers values deep into the Conservative heartland. This is analogous to Quebeckers own battles for their social gains and social rights against the corrupt and repressive regime of Duplessis. If Quebeckers grant a voice to Layton, Layton will grant Quebeckers a voice across confederation and inevitably in government.
Mulcair was in Quebec City blasting the Conservatives. I believe Layton will be dropping by there later this week.
Remember something, people: for the first time in history, of all the federalist leaders, it's the NDP leader with the clear Quebec-background advantage. Come e-day, that could mean a lot...
Very positive editorial about the NDP in the Journal de Montreal.
Continued here.