The Liberals are Socialist, the NDP are outright Stalinist. This election may have given the Tories a majority, but it also means the electorate is badly divided between centrist (Tories) and extreme left (NDP).
If Layton were PM Obama wouldn’t be the worst leader in North America. He’s unfortunately viewed as “likable” “want to have a beer with him” or hit the massage parlor with him.
More than half on the NPD seats are from mercurial QCrapbec which may as well be on another planet. The Conservatives actually lost 5 of their 11 seats there and got only 16% of the vote.
We’ll see if NPD stays as the main left party or whether the Liberals make a comeback. It’s 42-27 NPD-Liberal outside of La Crap Province. Only 4 Liberals west of Ontario.
NPD taking votes from the Liberals really helped in the Toronto area. Without their rise in the polls it may have been another minority government.
I agree the Liberals are socialists and the NDP Stalinists, but you forgot to mention that the Tories are statists. Canada managed to avoid the US meltdown for one reason: our banks were not forced to offer risky mortgages to those who couldn’t possibly afford it. Accordingly, we didn’t get the housing collapse which precipitated your banking collapse and the other spin off disasters. We did, however, spend billions to participate in the GM/Chrysler bailout and went from a surplus to $60 billion deficit in order to “stimulate” the economy. I give him no credit simply because he refrained from following Obama (which would have given us a $175 billion deficit).
The supposedly “conservative” Harper government engaged in reckless spending increases over its first 6 years in office, appeased the Quebec separitists with declarations of Quebec “nation” status, continued to import hundreds of thousands of muslims and sikhs who are intent on transforming our culture, barred its own MPs from evening raising contentious issues such as abortion and homosexual marriage, continued the ruinous practice of transfer payments from rich to poor provinces (thereby giving an incentive to the poor provinces to remain poor), introduced legislation which will undermine internet privacy, and pledged undying allegiance to our Stalinist healthcare system.
Harper may be a better alternative to the NDP, but he is no conservative. And now that he has a majority founded on increased seats among urban dwellers and ethnic voting blocks, look for him to move the Tories even closer to the “centre”. Conservatism simply does not exist as a viable political philosophy in Canada.