Photo Credit: The Canadian Cave of Coolness

Recent elections and polling indicate that two great Canadian federal parties, the Liberals and the NDP, are in real trouble and could continue to face irrelevance or even extinction in future elections. These are the parties of titans like Laurier, J.S. Woodsworth, Tommy Douglas, Pearson, and Trudeau, whose names reverberate throughout Canadian history.

Is it now time for an old and little known political idea to be revisited? Should the Liberals and the NDP consider some form of partnership? Having endured numerous unsuccessful election results, the Progressive Conservatives and various conservative splinter groups successfully entertained the thought of union, creating the Conservative Party at the federal level. Would the same type of marriage work for Liberals and the NDP?

The marriage between the Progressive Conservative and the Reform political parties was like a marriage between a wolf and a domesticated dog. They share a common evolutionary history, although there has been recent branching off from the evolutionary tree. Whatever differences that do exist, they are still genetically similar enough that they can produce progeny and get along reasonably well. Thus, the marriage of the two parties could and did occur. This union, which resulted in the Conservative Party, required a lot of compromise and effort, but a relatively happy marriage ensued.
(more…)