No Coalition!
Thirty-six years ago we were presented with a situation wherein the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau could not survive without us.
David Lewis did the right thing, in my opinion; he propped up the Goverment day-to-day, forced them to carry through on the creation of Petro Canada, held their feet to the fire ... and assumed no responsibility for their policy direction, took no Cabinet seat, and preserved our political independence. He knew, as we must remember, that we are not some sort of detached left wing of the Liberal Party of Canada, we are an independent social-democratic party with our own agenda.
Taking a Cabinet seat under a liberal PrimeMinister would compromise our independence, and lead to our absorption into the Liberals. It would be treachery to the memory of Douglas, Coldwell, and, yes, David Lewis.
Don't do it, Jack. You were not running for Deputy Prime Minister. Prop up whoever succeeds Dion; hold their feet to the fire; make them pull out of Afghanistan and shelter US military rresisters as part of the price of our day-to-day support; but NO COALITION!
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Yeah, David Lewis' actions
Yeah, David Lewis' actions really paid off for the NDP in the next election (1974), in which we got 16 seats down from 31.
I see only two opitions: we give no support to a Liberal replacement government, letting the Conservatives govern. Or we have a coaltion, with cabinet seats given to the NDP, which will allow us to get some of credit for enacting some of our policies.
I don't see just supporting the Liberals and letting them take our policies and support for free as a opition, unless we want to repeat 1974.
The 1985 Ontario accord, on
The 1985 Ontario accord, on the other hand, really paid off for the Party.
Yeah, with the 1987 Ontario
Yeah, with the 1987 Ontario Liberal majority and a loss of 6 seats for the NDP.
An accord has its own
An accord has its own dangers, sure; but at least Lewis preserved our party's freedom of action. Tying ourselves down to get Cabinet seats will lead us to disaster, and put Brother Layton's name up there in Party history beside Hazen Argue's.