Who's the bigger threat to the Conservatives? NDP or Liberals?

[Vancouverite]

One article by the Globe and Mail says the NDP is tied in first place with the Conservatives, and another says the Liberals are feared by the Conservatives, which is why they're attacking Bob Rae.

A long time ago, the Liberals were supposed to be the Natural Governing Party, but, now, they're in third place behind the NDP, who has made inroads in Quebec. The world is changing very fast, so everything is up in the air. I really don't know which of the two parties could challenge the Conservatives, but I think that, if the Liberals don't get second place in the next election, they're probably going to wither away.

 

[jariax]

One article by the Globe and Mail says the NDP is tied in first place with the Conservatives, and another says the Liberals are feared by the Conservatives, which is why they're attacking Bob Rae.

A long time ago, the Liberals were supposed to be the Natural Governing Party, but, now, they're in third place behind the NDP, who has made inroads in Quebec. The world is changing very fast, so everything is up in the air. I really don't know which of the two parties could challenge the Conservatives, but I think that, if the Liberals don't get second place in the next election, they're probably going to wither away.

The Liberals will never wither away. They have too many people that thrown their lot in with them, and too much history.
Any time a party is in power for too long, they attract all the wrong sorts of people. The people who covet power sign up to the party, regardless of their values, and the party becomes corrupt.

The lack of power that the Liberals possess now and in the foreseeable future will help purge the party of all those that were just in it for the power. All the corrupt lobbyists and consultants will abandon ship, leaving only those that truly care about Liberal values, making a far stronger, more dedicated party in the long run.

 

[petros]

Who's the bigger threat to the Conservatives? NDP or Liberals?



ME!!!

 

[Cliffy]

The Conservatives.

 

[Spade]

I thought Conservatives were their own worst enemy.

 

[TenPenny]

I think there are two threats to the Conservatives:

1 - the Conservatives
2 - truth and ethics

 

[mentalfloss]

Need I say more?

 

[skookumchuck]

It is said that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Sorry but i cannot bring myself to dig up every bit of dirt i can find on any particular political party so you are out of luck here.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

At the moment the political opposition is in such disarray nobody's as much of a threat to the Conservatives as they are themselves, as several posters have indicated, but they consider anyone who disagrees with them a threat, hence the attack ads. In their view, they don't have opposition, they have enemies. It's that old "with us or against us" meme, which is originally a biblical reference (Matthew 12:30, Luke 11:23), taken to extremes.

The NDP gains in Quebec happened because Quebec was tired of everyone else and fell in love with Jack Layton. I doubt that'll be repeated, the NDP has no better a chance at power than they've ever had. I think the Liberals are years away from pulling themselves together and Bob Rae isn't the man to do it, Ontario's never going to trust him after his time as premier. Harper can probably be PM until he gets tired of it, or we get tired of it, but for the latter to happen the opposition has to present a credible alternative. I don't see that happening any time soon, Harper's got the same splintered and floundering opposition that kept Chretien in office for so long.

 

[Vancouverite]

If both Liberals and NDP are in disarray, then the Conservatives are going to get another majority, which would mean they would be in power for over a decade. The Liberals will begin to wither away - or so I hope.

 

[taxslave]

If both Liberals and NDP are in disarray, then the Conservatives are going to get another majority, which would mean they would be in power for over a decade. The Liberals will begin to wither away - or so I hope.

They won't wither away. But they need at least another 5 years in the penalty box before they might be fit to govern again.

 

[gerryh]

another 5 years or so.... let Trudeau get more experience before he carries on his fathers legacy.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

If the Liberals wither away something else will arise to fill the gap, perhaps by the NDP moving to the centre, or the invention of a new party, something like that, same as what happened when the Progressive Conservative Party self-destructed. The Liberal Party might disappear, though I'd say that's pretty unlikely, but liberalism won't.

 

[taxslave]

another 5 years or so.... let Trudeau get more experience before he carries on his fathers legacy.

We can't afford to get fu cked over by another generation of Trudeaus.

 

[damngrumpy]

The biggest threat could in fact be a loose confederation of the left. Where the Liberals and
the NDP have a quasi merger or should we call it an understanding.
All this talk of the terrible coalition is nonsense. In BC for example the Federal Liberals and
the Federal Conservatives have a Coalition called the BC Liberal Party it used to be called
Social Credit. I have personally witnessed Stockwell Day standing under a BC Liberal sign.

The answer officially is we don't know we will see who wins the NDP Leadership and where
they take the party as an alternative. If they go to the center they could pick up enough to
win a small victory. If they go to the old left the Liberals will be back as the main party in this
country. The Conservative Party has peaked and will find it difficult to have a majority or a
government at all.

 

[Vancouverite]

I think it's up in the air as to whether the Liberal Party will wither away, but I do agree there will be a place for a centre-left party, though such a party in the 21st Century will be more free-market oriented than its predecessor.

 

[Bar Sinister]

I think there are two threats to the Conservatives:

1 - the Conservatives
2 - truth and ethics

Dead on.

The biggest threat to the Cons is always the Cons. Eventually people get tired of a party that continually implements social and economic strategies that don't work and ministers and other party members of questionable integrity. It is a death of political inches, but it is always a death.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Well let's see now, there was Borden, 1911-1920, followed briefly by Meighen in 1920-21, Bennett, 1930-35, Diefenbaker, 1957-63, Mulroney, 1984-93, and now Harper, 2006-?. I'm not counting brief interludes like Clark and Campbell. See a pattern there? Looks to me approximately like every 10 to 20 years a new generation of voters tries the right for a while, realizes that they deliver on only one of their three major principles (lowering taxes, the other two are smaller government and balanced budgets, which nobody living has ever seen them do) and spends a lot of time helping the rich get richer, then sends them back to the wilderness. Every party in power for too long eventually starts to think it has some sort of divine right to do whatever it wants. It usually takes about 8 or 10 years, but I think Harper's set a record; that's the position he started from.

 

[Praxius]

The Conservatives.

Yeah you beat me to it... the biggest threat to the Cons are themselves and their continual bungling of everything.

 

[damngrumpy]

The biggest problem for the Conservatives at the moment is that they have now embarked
on a program steeped in the late 1980's and up to the mid nineties. They are determined to
implement the social conservative agenda of the old Reform Party. The problem is the
political landscape has changed, and the peoples priorities are different. That means they
are on a collision course with themselves as a party and society in general.
Merging of the party saw fiscal conservatives join the reformers and that was not a good mix
before and its not going to work for any length of time now. The reason? this was not really
a merger as much as it was a coalition. Good short term but cracks appear pretty quick when
one group within begins to implement a social agenda. The Tories have peaked and that is
reflected in the latest poll that shows them at 37%. At this time no it doesn't mean that much
except with little or no opposition, they should be somewhere near 41 to 42 percent. They
can't seem to break beyond the ceiling the public has set.
They are in trouble we just don't know how much yet.