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Will Ignatieff and Layton vote down Harper in the event of another Minority gov?

In the event of another Conservative minority on May 2....

  • The Liberals will allow another Harper minority government

    Votes: 9 37.5%
  • The Liberals and the NDP will defeat the Conservatives and allow the NDP to form government

    Votes: 15 62.5%

  • Total voters
    24

MetroMan

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It appears that Jack Layton will come in second place in another Conservative minority. Will Ignatieff and Layton vote down Harper and allow Layton to form government?
 
I would really like for the NDP and Liberals to gain enough seats to build a majority coalition (without requiring Bloc support). However, I don't know if the Liberals would "lower" themselves to being the junior partner. The only way I can see that happening is if Ignatieff leaves and the party is leaderless for a while.
 
I just don't see how the Liberals could vote to kick out Harper for contempt of Parliament and then allow him to come back and form a government even though he's firm in not cooperating with other parties in a minority.

I think that Ignatieff would get a nice position in an NDP+Liberal coalition. Why would he not want that?
 
I suspect that the Liberals will be extremely cautious in granting any legitimacy to the NDP. They may well favour the status quo of a Conservative government over helping the NDP establish itself more permanently as the dominant left-of-centre federal party.
 
...or perhaps the NDP putting them in third place will wipe away their smugness as the "defacto Left-of-centre" party and the Liberals will take a merger seriously now. It appears to be the only way for them to form government now. The Right merger almost guarantees an unfair advantage to the Conservatives in every election.
 
I think that Ignatieff would get a nice position in an NDP+Liberal coalition. Why would he not want that?
If it's rendered moot by defeat in his own riding? (Given present numbers, don't bet that isn't possible.)
 
Iggy should step down if he fails to get a majority, the same for Harper; Layton and Rae forming a government sounds good too me. :4)
 
It would politically be a tough sell at the next election if the Bloc had any role to play. And any legitimacy for the NDP woul really hurt the Liberals. Imagine the next election. How could the Liberals attack the NDP as inexperienced then? Far better for them to allow a Harper minority than to legitimize the NDP.

Politicians are politicians. They care more about their jobs than they do about principles. Often, they aren't as ideological as their supporters. There is no way, the Liberals party would legitimize a competitor just so they could boot Harper. Even they don't hate Harper that much.
 
The NDP, Liberals and Bloq almost did it, only stopped by Harper's proroguing parliament. Wasn't it politically difficult then?

The Liberals won't want to be be relegated to 3rd party status as seems to be the case. The solution is to participate in the next government, something that a coalition will allow them to do.

They'll likely be in power for 4 years which will allow them to rebuild the party. If they decide not to run as a coalition party in the next election, they'll surely find a breaking point which will trigger an election, providing a significant differentiation between the two parties and again making them rivals.
 
The NDP has managed to do something the Liberals are unlikely to ever achieve on their own again: build NATIONAL support for a left-wing platform.

The Liberals can't win in the west. The NDP can. The Liberals can't win in Quebec. The NDP can.

Barring the Liberals finding a leader who can be Trudeau II -- and I don't think Justin Trudeau is it -- I'm thinking their best option might be to look at hitching their wagon to the NDP.

Installing an established Liberal as finance minister (Ralph Goodale?) in an NDP-led coalition government would, I think, help the NDP avoid the "socialists are ruining the economy!" backlash that Bob Rae had to deal with when he was premier.
 
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I just wounder what kind of spin Harper & Friends will throw out there if NDP and Liberals would successfully form a coalition? Of course the ratings that Sun News is getting I doubt they'll get it across:D. But who knows?
 
The ideal outcome, I feel, would be like what's emerged in Nova Scotia provincially over the past decade and a half: a genuine three-party balance that nullifies any talk of uniting the left/right/whatever...
 
I just don't see how the Liberals could vote to kick out Harper for contempt of Parliament and then allow him to come back and form a government even though he's firm in not cooperating with other parties in a minority.

I think that Ignatieff would get a nice position in an NDP+Liberal coalition. Why would he not want that?

The only way I can see them doing it while saving face is to get Harper to agree to a set of Parliamentary reforms around prorogation, committees, how candidates are selected, etc.
 

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