The Establishment and the NDP

Gerald Caplan, Opinion, The Globe and Mail:

In the May election, the historic Jack Layton election, the NDP got 30 per cent of the vote; Mr. Layton had never gotten more than 18 per cent before that, and the NDP had never gotten more than 20 per cent in its history. Now look at the poll released just this week showing the Conservatives down, the Liberals up at 25 per cent, and the NDP still in second place at 28 per cent. In Quebec the latest poll showed the NDP at 33 per cent and its closest rival, the Bloc, at 20 per cent. These are, by any measure, remarkable results. And they’ve been achieved under an interim leader who never asked for the job and knows perfectly well she’s not a natural. And they’ve been achieved in the face of all the other hurdles that can’t be overcome until the new leader is chosen in March and returns with his/her team of fellow contenders to take on the Harper government.

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