Jason Cherniak has penned a very angry, very personal post demanding that the NDP vanish.
Well, good news for Mr. Cherniak: he pretty much got his wish back in November 1993, when voters desperate to end the Mulroney legacy of cutbacks, corruption and broken promises stampeded to the Liberals. Along the way, they reduced the NDP to a nine-member caucus, well shy of the minimum needed to be officially recognized as a political party.
For the next four years, the Chrétien Liberals governed pretty much free of any interference from the NDP, which was largely ignored by the media and hamstrung by the rules of Parliament. And they promptly slashed health, education and social spending far beyond anything the Mulroney Conservatives dared to dream of. They blithely broke promises on everything from childcare to NAFTA. And things only began to turn around when the NDP returned to Parliament in force in 1997.
So we don’t have to imagine federal politics without the NDP, Jason. Been there; done that; hated it. And we’re not going back.
Updated: Egads… I no sooner post this, than I discover that Jason has been taken ill. He’s apparently recovered enough to post about it briefly to his blog; I hope the rest of his recovery is swift and thorough.
Well, either your post or the Robbins lawsuit threat caused his appendix to burst. The power of the pen.
The NDP is sick? Who knew that you could catch something — let alone appendicitis — just by posting about it.
Hey.
Just stating the obvious, but haven’t we been there, done that, hated that thing with private health care already.
Given that, why is it that we’re going back again?
Rebranding, Ross. It isn’t two-tier, it’s… it’s… MedicarePlus! (The exclamation mark is part of the name.)