In order to dethrone the Harper Conservatives the idea of a Liberal-NDP coalition must remain an option in the post-election scenario. If the trend in the recent polls, as of Aug. 7 persists, neither party could win the required number of seats to form a majority government in October. There is a real possibility of another Conservative minority government and four more years of the Harper reign unless the Liberals and the New Democrats can agree to put a stop to that. If the right can merge, in absolute terms, to oust Canada’s “natural governing party” then why can’t the left join hands, as an alternative to a complete merger, to form a carefully negotiated principled partnership in the interest of changing the direction that Mr. Harper has set for Canada in his decade long reign? In the Westminster parliamentary tradition, the concept of coalition between political parties has been tested and proven to work towards its predefined objectives: The Tories in the U.K. formed coalition with the Liberal Democrats and governed the country from 2010-2015 without there being any major issues. In fact, coalition politics is a reality in many other modern democracies such as France, Germany, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand, just to name a few. With respect to the viability of a Liberal-NDP coalition, if you discount the perceived boisterous rhetoric of the union element within the NDP and the so called “Blue Liberals” in the Liberal party, the two parties are, at least ideologically, a carbon copy of each other. Their 2015 election platforms, despite the Liberals concerted efforts to remain distinct from the New Democrats, are quite similar not only in spirit but also in substance. Mr. Trudeau champions the issues and concerns of the “middle class” and Mr. Mulcair projects himself as the epitome of the “working class.” The two terms are often used interchangeably and denote, more or less, the same group of people in the Canadian context. Just looking at the recent debate surrounding the Bill C-51 my suspicion is that the Liberals only supported the bill because the NDP vehemently opposed it and they did not want to appear on the same page with them – just another example of the Liberals’ struggle to appear distinct from the New Democrats. The underlying similarities between the two parties become even more obvious when Mr. Trudeau continues to insist on repealing parts of the bill, now enacted into law as the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015, that the left leaning ideologues oppose the most. Why should the Harper Conservatives be dethroned? Well, because, it is still possible to reverse the adverse effects of the ideological and philosophical changes of the last decade that this country has experienced. Its unique identity and reputation as the “honest broker” on the international scene can still be restored. Domestically, its unique “made in Canada” governance that works for the benefit of the masses rather than for the top of the economic pyramid elites can still be instituted. Today there is a cloud of pettiness, cynicism, and vindictiveness that constantly hangs over the highest political office of this country. There have been targeted and frequent attempts to vilify the Supreme Court of Canada. The Senate has been plagued with corrupt and incompetent appointments to the extent that Canadians are no longer willing to make the effort of reforming it. The economy, the perceived strong suit of the Conservatives, is in a shambles. This in no way constitutes the complete list of the reasons why we have had enough of the Harper Conservatives. Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Mulcair must set aside their less significant and often artificial differences and agree in principle to work together in the interest of bringing about the “real change.” They ought to understand that the dream of solo flight to the proverbial upper echelons of power might not materialize at all. They must come to terms with the possibility of forming a coalition if they are actually sincere in their assertions of bringing about the “change” that they are promising to Canadians. Amir Farooqi, St. Albert
