Voters warming to NDP
“If I were a Liberal, which I am not, I would be concerned about this group of people who are opposed to Mr. Harper, and going back and forth between ourselves and the Liberals, (and who) are now increasingly saying Tom and the NDP are the people that can and should form the government,” he said.
Broadbent is a loyal party man, of course, and loyal party men can generally be relied upon to say things are looking up for their party.
The Conservatives launched new attack ads aimed at Trudeau on Monday, and you can be sure their polls are better than the ones you read in the paper. That suggests the real threat comes from the Liberals.
Broadbent says Mulcair will connect because of his policies: $15-a-day daycare, a $15 minimum wage and an increase to corporate tax rates.
The polling done by the Broadbent Institute shows Canadians support those ideas.
“Time after time we find on almost every issue, a majority of Canadians are social democrats,” he says. “On tax policy, on Canada pension, a whole range of issues that are reasonably described as social democratic, there is a significant majority of Canadians that are on that side.”
Broadbent says the long-term trend shows voters are warming to the NDP.
“One of the things that is happening now, and we’ll see if (it) persists in the election, is where some of those (voters) were split in their partisan positions, they’re increasingly coming behind the NDP.”
The biggest challenge for the NDP is not convincing Canadians that it has good ideas, or isn’t wacky, but that the party can take power in Ottawa.
“On a national level, they’ve never won,” Broadbent says. “Can they really win? Can they really pull it off on the national level?”
http://www.wiartonecho.com/2015/05/25/broadbent-voters-warming-to-ndp