The reason we need a new party is precisely because only 20% to 25% of the national electorate are ever going to vote for a party devoted to fighting the status quo from the left. In BC and Quebec that number rises to somewhere around a third is my guess. I will vote for a party that is pushing the main stream parties to the left without ever needing them to form government. History shows that is the only way we have every really made gains. The compromises to try and attract 45% of voters mean that the party is not fighting the status quo. Besides for ideology there is also the inherent regionalism that the NDP no longer talks about.
Canada is like an old cow. The West feeds it. Ontario and Quebec milk it. And you can well imagine what it's doing in the Maritimes.
Tommy Douglas