The 2007 NDP could be influential, tweaking bills and making deals - a social justice NGO with a parliamentary presence. This NDP is unappealing to me but there are options.

 

With Mississauga-Streetsville MP Wajid Khan's defection, the Conservatives and NDP have a working majority.  For the NDP that need not mean tweaking bills and making deals.

 

Stephen Harper is bold enough to declare the Quebecois a nation. Is he bold enough to form a coalition government? He says there is no need for three federal elections in two years and he wants to make Parliament work. I heard Prime Minister Harper quote Layton approvingly for saying the same thing.

 

Most importantly, the Afghan mission has not had enough time to achieve tangible success and Prime Minister Harper needs more time to break the insidious hold Liberal operatives have on  Canada's Public Service.

 

When the NDP held the balance of power in Ontario in 1985 - the Conservatives had just swung to the right, with Miller defeating Grossman to succeed Bill Davis. Miller's right-wing Conservatives bid against the Liberals for NDP support, a process that lasted weeks. If Miller was that flexible, Harper can be more so. His new House Leader and Minister for Democratic Reform, Peter Van Loan, supported Dianne Cunningham against Mike Harris in 1990 for Ontario Conservative Leader.

 

The Ontario Citizens' Assembly will almost certainly propose a German/Scottish-style Mixed Member Proportional system. It should be approved in October's provincial general election. The sooner Canadians get used to coalition governments the better.

 

To my fellow NDPers I say: My goal is to see the NDP in government. Does that mean getting 50 per cent of the vote? Let's be serious: few democratic countries have single-party governments. So we have to start getting our minds around coalition politics.

 

Dave Mann