Well, obviously I disagree with just about everything you have written. Obviously fearmongering from the other side of things.
- I've been supporting the NDP on and off since Broadbent (I have voted Green a number of times as well), so where Layton got his health care doesn't impact how I feel about the party and its platform as a whole. Also, Layton didn't know the clinic was for profit when he went there... the procedure went on OHIP.
- You claim the NDP's environmental policies will cause job losses and ruin the economy, but give no factual basis for this. Typical for fearmongering.
- The NDP do not advocate raising taxes on the middle class. It's right there in their platform. Insinuating that they would do so even though it is not in their platform - just typical fearmongering.
- The NDP do have "monitoring and regulating fuel prices at the pump" but suggesting that this is anything at all akin to the NEP is just fearmongering. His plan is even less stringent that what some provinces are already enacting (see
http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local...n?hub=CP24Home )
- Our banks are strong because they are just rolling in profits. Profits gained by charging people absolutely outrageous ATM fees and monthly banking fees. If they were profitable and strong because of their smart banking, well, yeah, they deserve credit. Suggesting that attacking ATM fees is going to destabilize the economy is just fearmongering.
- The people that I talk to when I knock on doors are NOT people that "have something to gain from their policies"; most are people like me who want their taxes going to things they believe in like health care and education.
As for the NDP in Ontario, that was just horrible timing and Bob Rae couldn't please anyone. The Mulroney-John Crow recession was taking a huge bite out of the Canadian economy and Bob Rae tried to spend his way out of it. Stupid. Then towards the end of his term, he tried to make spending cuts and just took an axe to everything, pissing off the traditional supporters. It was certainly a mess, I will agree... but the Mulroney Conservatives and John Crow deserve a heap of the blame for that mess. As for BC and Saskatchewan, they both have had some very good NDP governments - and I would think even you would have to say that Roy Romanow proved that NDP governments can be fiscally responsible.
Personally, I can't believe there isn't more than 20% that support the NDP.