This is a party that has always been between 12% and 25% of the federal vote. That means that on average, roughly one in five Canadians voters chooses the NDP, and yet the Conservatives complain that the NDP have an unfair amount of power when they control the budget for the first time in the last forty years? The rest of those years, the budget is controlled by parties that have had, on average, maybe one in three votes. Seems to me that politics in a democracy even out over time, and so it makes sense that every so often, a budget is put forth that reflects the opinions of that 20% of Canadian voters. It would be a travesty if the NDP controlled the budget every year with only 20% of the vote. But they don't--this is the result of unlikely parlimentary conditions and of an extreme miscalculation by the Conservatives.
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