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There is a bit of a myth that parties that are junior partners to governing parties in minority parliaments always do badly in the subsequent election. In fact its a very mixed bag. Everyone points to what happened to the Lib Dems in the UK under Nick Clegg in 2015 after 5 years of being in coalition with the Tories. But the fact is the Lib Dems and the Tories were never a good fit. The Lib Dems see themselves as a party of the left and as an "anti-Tory" party, so what Clegg did in 2010 was always seen as a bit of a deal with the devil. Plus Cameron brought in brutal austerity measures that were EXTREMELY unpopular with the people who had voted Lib Dem. It was the equivalent of what would likely happen if the NDP ever made a deal to put the Tories led by Poilievre into power. That would be political suicide.

This is a very different situation and polling has shown that the VAST majority of NDP voters are supportive of a deal with the Liberals - especially one where the NDP gets so many of its policy objectives addressed. Keep in mind that in Ontario in 1985 the NDP signed an accord that put the Ontario Liberals in power. It did not work out so badly for the NDP. In the subsequent 1987 election the Liberals won a majority but the NDP also gained ground and became the official opposition and then in 1990 when Ontarians wanted to throw out the Ontario Liberals - they gave the NDP under Bob Rae a majority!

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The bigger picture is legislation gets passed if you don't care who gets the credit… and Singh said as much… more less paraphrasing Elizabeth May's primer "How To Save Democracy" which she no doubt cribbed from somewhere else. In any case, I'm not sure I agree with you Evan which makes reading you all the more entertaining LOL much appreciated… Thanks, Pete.

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.. Remember too..

The Liberal / NDP vote split in Peterborough Kawartha

gave Canadians Ms Michelle Ferreri - Honourable MP

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As my son put it, the Liberal platform had 10 years worth of promises, and the NDP platform had 10 years worth of promises, and with this deal both parties will have the opportunity to achieve 3 years worth of those promises - it's really nothing more or less than that.

Though I can understand your argument, I believe it is hard to say now exactly which issues will be in play in the Canadian political landscape in 2025 - Rachel Notley may be in power in Alberta, Del Lucca in Ontario, Trump in the US (God help us!), there may be other issues then too.

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