Quote:
Originally Posted by Firebot
We could get something resembling a centrist party in Canada again?
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Maybe. But I’m not following your logic down that path. Stay with me for a second here:
- Over the last two elections, Canadians have pointed out some of the far right-leaning issues with the Conservatives (soapboxing, fearmongering, whatever we want to call it is fine for this example)
- Instead of acknowledging those issues and making policy changes towards centrism, the Conservative party has actually leaned into those issues and gone further right
So, if we agree that’s true and ignore the fact that the Liberals and NDP have been
heavily criticized for years and they’ve only gotten “worse,” isn’t the suggestion that people should turn their criticisms against the Liberals and NDP likely to be equally fruitless? Why would it be different?
If the Conservatives responded to criticism by going further right instead of centre, why would the Liberals not do the same (but opposite) thing? (I fully expect the NDP to go further left after Singh leaves, but I don’t think it’s a response to general criticism).
You know what I mean?
Maybe the reality of politics today (and as far as I know, Canadian politics for a very long time, at least as far back as Chrétien) is that parties don’t actually “win” elections, parties lose them. Harper won because people grew tired of the Liberals, Trudeau won because people grew tired of the Conservatives. Maybe the NDP overtakes the Liberals while the Conservatives are in power and become the “other” option, and so maybe the real race is between who becomes the other option as we wait for the 4+ years for people to grow tired of a party.
A party that everyone agrees is centrist would likely rule forever, because none of the options are “different” enough. But nobody will ever agree on something like that. Trudeau is far left to some people. O’Toole was far right. Despite these guys not being remarkably different in policy (not as wide a gap as the Singh and PP, for example).
Anyways, just rambling at this point.