With the news today of the deal between Stephane Dion of the Liberal Party and Elizabeth May of the Green Party, it is interesting to note that NDP leader Jack Layton seems genuinely angry:
The latest deal between Elizabeth May and the Liberals is disappointing news for the voters of Central Nova, Jack Layton said today. The NDP leader said Stephane Dion and Ms. May have decided to deny ordinary Canadians the fair range of choice available to voters everywhere else in the country.
“This is the kind of backroom wheeling and dealing that ordinary Canadians are fed up with. When the Liberal Party was in power, they generated a lot of cynicism about Canadian politics with their behind-closed-doors ways. It seems not much has changed under their new leader,” said Layton.
Former NDP Leader Ed Broadbent weighed in on the issue as well.
“One voter disenfranchised is one voter too many. May and Dion have ripped away choice from voters in Central Nova,” said Broadbent. “It was utterly irresponsible for Mr Dion, leader of what was once a national party, to abandon voters in any constituency. And it’s equally irresponsible for Ms May to broker this kind of deal."
Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May have each spoken about how their arrangement is meant to target Stephen Harper's Conservatives. I don't think this is true. Studying the reactions of various people over the course of this day, it is the NDP who look worried.
By being seen to bow and scrape in front of Elizabeth May, Stephane Dion has given the Green Party as a whole a major boost in credibility. A strong Green Party is primarily a threat to the NDP. People for whom the environment is a deciding factor in their voting have traditionally voted NDP. The Green Party is normally seen as a wasted vote. But if the Green Party is perceived to have a real chance to win seats, the NDP risks losing votes from its environment wing to the Green Party. The more conservative branch of the NDP (labour unions, for example), seeing the party hemorrhaging votes, jumps ship but in the other direction, to the Liberals.
The Liberals and the Green Party are not considering a merger. They are entering into a non-aggression pact. Instead of fighting each other, the enemies have made a pact of convenience for the purpose of destroying the NDP.
The obvious historical parallel is that of Poland in 1939, with the NDP in that role. The problem with that analogy is that the Liberals and the Green Party are cast in the roles of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, and that would be an unfair comparison.
But like the situation in 1939, these two foes, the Liberal Party and the Green Party, have decided to dismember the party that lies between them, and then each would grow bigger as a result. Once that is done, I have no doubt that Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May will turn on each other.
Just like Operation Barbarossa in 1941 -- darn, another entirely unfair analogy.
Update: Andrew Coyne has come to the same conclusion, and he posted ahead of me. Dammit. Then, again, he thinks the Tories are playing a role in this calculation by Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May. I think they might have come to try this attack on the NDP whether or not the Conservatives were moving on the green file.
