(03-24-2022, 08:18 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: And now we again are in the situation where not enough people want to give the NDP a chance. So we just alternate between Liberal incompetence and Conservative lunacy. It’s not that the NDP would bring about utopia, but they would provide a different perspective and allow for more interesting debates (in particular, a Liberal official opposition to an NDP government would I think produce some very healthy debate and discussion, leading to better legislation than either would produce with a Conservative opposition).
Indeed. Rae was fine, but the recession he had to govern alongside with really hurt him. And since then, the Liberals and Conservatives have spewed out so much anti-NDP propaganda that voters today either think that we'd get another Rae or that NDP voters are just lazy, young people who want to live off of social services. Nobody seems to ask themselves...why does this province suck? Could it be that we keep voting for the same two parties, when we have lots more we can vote for?
I think NDP will have another chance in the near future, but it'll be down to how well they can connect with voters from all sides and not just existing social democrats. That also means they need to connect with voters of all age demographics. NDP supporters tend to be younger, which is fine, but they need to draw in people from other age groups. They need to win over some of the conservative leaning people and they need to win over the liberal leaning people, most of which are white, middle class pseudo-social liberals. And they also need to present ideas that can give voters faith that if they were to govern, they could work on solving things like housing, economic inequality, education, health care, climate change and so on. People are suffering and struggling and they need to know someone has a plan, though those plans also can't hurt the people struggling (for example, people worry NDP would mean higher taxes for everyone and when people can barely make ends meet, the last thing they want is to get taxed).