An NDP candidate in London has surprised everyone, including his own party, by withdrawing from the election race and throwing his support behind a Liberal rival.
Ryan Dolby, who was running in Elgin-Middlesex-London, made the sudden announcement through a news release emailed to the media, party officials and others Wednesday morning.
"I am worried if Stephen Harper gets a majority. I made a strategic decision," Dolby said.
Feeds the Liberal narrative, but also feeds the Conservative narrative. Interesting to see how this plays out, but the tone has been set and it's moved to the practical.
19 comments:
I've been arguing for years with my dipper friends that the biggest impact they could ever make getting their ideas implemented would be to leave the NDP and join the Liberal party en masse. If they all show up at policy conferences and put their ideas on the table, the best ideas from both parties go into the platform, and everybody wins!
last election results for that riding were:
Joe Preston Conservative:
22 970 votes 48.4%
Suzanne van Bommel Liberal:
11 169 votes 23.5%
Ryan Dolby NDP:
9 135 votes 19.2%
Though the media impact of this could be large. We`ll see. Bet Harper isn`t so happy with those polls showing a large lead now.
Vote Liberal or it`s a Harper majority government...
This could work out as `well` as his `coalition` talk.
Am I being paranoid in thinking that this Baird presser is going to be something big?
NDP should do this for the Kitchener-area ridings as well. That would allow Redman and Telegdi to re-take these seats fairly easily for the Grits. Might even work in Kitchener-Conestoga to take out Harold Albrecht.
Or, the Dippers can enjoy another round of Harper as Prime Minister - this time with a majority government. Time for them to realize who their real enemy is.
Kirk
It really is more the optics of it than anything, although I'm totally confidenct 08 with Dion is the Lib low water mark in Ontario.
there is an insanity part when you are voting NDP OR GREEN to defeat Harper... think... think for god's sake...
the road to NOWHERE.
Now if we were talking about Saskatchewan Ridings, there are 13 constituencies where the Lib candidate should step aside to try and prevent even more of this
Strategic voting is a way for the Lefties to throw their majority weight around while also managing their voting preferences in a very general overall sense; the major problem with it is that it requires an level of awareness and polling sophistication to pull off properly. Just looking at the 2008 election figures (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/) you can see a vast number of ridings that only need to be tipped one way or another to deny the Conservatives a seat.
Become aware of whom in your riding is the main contender for the Conservative and vote for them. This requires getting your riding information straight and also modeling voting trends.
The Harper gov't needs to be replaced by a Canadian Government.
leftdog
I've blogged on this previously, all for that, but it goes both ways and it means NDP would withdraw by more than twice that of Libs if implemented.
Yeah, I'm paranoid. Baird just wanted to make some nonsensical coalition comments on this topic. How pathetic.
Keep in mind it feeds Harper's narrative of coalitions if they Libs and NDP start formally withdrawing candidates in a non-aggression pack.
This would also hurt the NDP in the per-vote subsidy should it go cross-country. Could be coupled with a national vote on some form of PR for NDP support?
KW
I mentioned that in the quick post.
Now Tony Genco is supporting Fantino in Vaughan. Unreal.
Holy &#$% Genco pulled a Rossi? I like Fantino too, but this isn't your Grandpa's old PC party you're crossing the floor to here. In fact I'll cut Rossi some slack in that he was more of a Red Tory anyhow, at least judging by his TO mayoral POV. And the OntPCs are still nominally Progressive Conservatives.
Have the Libs got any high-profile candidates to parachute into Vaughan?
Way worse than a Rossi, he ran against this guy, trashed him continually four months ago. What a joke, nice childish response to the Libs not running you again.
OK just caught in the news that Genco was dumped by the LPC Vaughan riding association a few days ago, and they have another local politician running this time around. So this isn't much more than sour grapes. And yes way worse than Rossi, clearly a more immature decision on Genco's part.
I don't know that it will make too much difference here as the Tories have generally averaged over 45% in this riding. In nearby London West it would probably have more impact where the NDP rallying around the Liberals could make a difference. I should also note that although the Tories got under 50% in Elgin-Middlesex-London last time around there were more who voted for parties on the right than left if you include the CHP who got around 2%. I think Rossi's defection makes more sense than Genco as most of Rossi's proposals in the Toronto mayoral campaign were generally right of centre anyways, whereas Genco doesn't struck me as conservative more as an opportunist. I think rather than playing up the coalition, the Tories would be more successful if they used these two defections as proof the Liberals are moving to the left (not that they necessarily are, but perception matters more than reality in politics).
Miles
I don't think it matters practically, the math is still long- although Dion was lower water mark in this region. I think it important in terms of optics, puts NDP on defensive, creates a sense that Lib narrative of two choices has momentum.
NDP is still running a candidate, so it's mainly a party switch by Ryan.
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