They will fight one another in the 2015 federal election campaign as fiercely as they fight the Stephen Harper Conservatives.
But where it still does make sense for the Liberals and New Democrats to get together is in Ontario.
At least that’s what a normal Ontario voter might think.
In policy terms, there is little that distinguishes Andrea Horwath’s Ontario NDP from Premier Kathleen Wynne’s provincial Liberals. The latest Liberal budget, in which Wynne very publicly acceded to most of Horwath’s demands, underlines that fact.
But even before that budget, few serious ideological issues divided the two parties.
The NDP, as part of its move to the right, has embraced the Liberal/Conservative notion that budget-balancing is the key to economic revival.
Tellingly, Horwath didn’t demand that the Liberal government move off its pledge to balance the province’s books by 2018.
Instead, she called on it to rearrange priorities within that framework.
As a result, the Liberals pledged more money for home care even as they curbed hospital spending.
Indeed, spending more to ensure that old people can stay in their homes is probably a good idea. But should it come at the expense of hospital beds, services and staff (all of which are being cut at, for instance, Toronto’s Scarborough Hospital)?
That’s a question of a different order, which neither the Liberals nor the New Democrats are keen to answer.
Auto insurance? Had Horwath demanded that Wynne create a public auto insurance scheme — as British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec have done — the Wynne Liberals would have balked.
But the Ontario NDP no longer promotes public auto insurance. Wynne found it easy to meet Horwath’s demand for a 15 per cent rate cut by the province’s private insurers, in large part because it is to be financed largely by cutting benefits to car accident victims.
Aid for the poor? As my colleague Carol Goar has pointed out, the budget delivered little here. But it did provide enough to satisfy the NDP’s minimalist demands.
That both the NDP and Liberals are led by women wouldn’t usually matter. But in this case, the fact that they happen to be led by women who insist on the virtue of co-operation raises the obvious question: Why don’t they co-operate all the way?
Horwath has said that co-operation and consultation are a woman’s way of doing politics. Wynne says her style of governing involves respectful conversations.
A normal voter might ask why the two don’t consult and converse their way respectfully into a more stable arrangement — such as a political accord or even a coalition government.
The reason a normal voter might wonder about such things is that with the centre divided any election is likely to result in a victory for Tim Hudak’s slash-and-burn Conservatives.
The latest public opinions polls show the Liberals and Conservatives more or less tied in first place. But governing parties almost always lose popularity during an election campaign.
And thanks to an array of scandals that happened under the Liberal watch, ranging from the gas plant fiasco to the lunacies around the quasi-public air ambulance company ORNGE, Wynne’s government is particularly vulnerable.
The serious right is, of course, delighted by the current state of affairs. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford wants Horwath to force an election right away.
He would be horrified if she and Wynne somehow managed to avoid dividing the non-Tory vote.
I expect Ford need not worry. It might be logical for the Ontario Liberals and newly moderate NDP to get together. But, as in the federal arena, it is not likely to happen. Ego, history and ambition will see to that.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Thomas Walkom
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