There is nothing new about the deal liberal Justin Trudeau has recently made with Jagmeet Singh and his new democrats. They say they are going to cooperate for the next three years. What do you want to bet that Justin throws Jagmeet under the bus before two years?
These things do tend to work on a two-year cycle. When Justin’s father made a deal with NDP leader David Lewis in 1972, I really liked David Lewis. He was a gentleman and honest. I had high hopes that the romance would become something permanent. Yet it was actually Lewis who saw the relationship as failing the new democrats. He was right. The election in 1974 was something of a rout for the new democrats. The liberals were returned with a majority.
Another such deal occurred after the Ontario election in 1985. I bumped into liberal leader David Peterson’s go-to guy, Hershel Ezzrin, at my local campaign headquarters on election day. I reported to Ezzrin that the combined liberal-NDP numbers should end 42 years of conservative rule in Ontario if he could convince David Peterson to make a deal with the new democrats’ Bob Rae. Ezzrin blew me off, saying that they would never do that.
But the next day—when they saw that the combined liberal-NDP numbers exceeded the conservative numbers—they sent Bob Nixon, the most trusted liberal, to negotiate with Bob Rae and his NDP. Premier Peterson called an election in 1987 when the accord had expired and won the second largest majority in Ontario history.
Interestingly, the same approach has already been announced for the coming election this year in Ontario. The Ontario NDP leader, Andrea Horwath and Ontario liberal leader, Steven Del Duca, have both stated publicly that they would work together to make sure that a minority conservative government did not survive a confidence motion—ensuring one of them might be the next premier of Ontario.
While this is by no way a prediction at this time, I would assume that Del Duca’s liberals will rebound enough in the election to ensure that the Ford conservatives do not get a majority. The conservatives certainly have not done anything to have earned a return to power.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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