In my 2015 - TOP SECRET CONSERVATIVE HANDBOOK, I have an article called THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY NDP. As with everything in that book, it's written from the perspective of a Conservative Strategist, and explains why the CPC only ever attacks the Liberals, as they did even when the Official Opposition Party to Stephen Harper was Jack Layton's NDP.
In short, it's because the NDP is irrelevant to them. The NDP is either a nothing burger, a party that props up the Liberals in a minority or someone they can occasionally align with to stop a Liberal minority.
And despite Harper proroguing Parliament in 2008 and running around the country campaigning against the constitutionality of Coalition Governments, the fact is he formed one with both the NDP and the BLOQ in 2004, and the three offered the Governor General of the day the option of turning government over to them (led by the Conservatives, of course) instead of calling an election WHEN they defeated Paul Martin's minority Liberal government.
The idea was rejected for the very simple reason that when more than a year passes after an election it's impossible and "conventionally" wrong for the Governor General to presume they know the "will of the people".
The idea was rejected for the very simple reason that when more than a year passes after an election it's impossible and "conventionally" wrong for the Governor General to presume they know the "will of the people".
But the NDP has never been that will. Layton's Official Opposition is the largest block that party has ever had, and ever will have. And if that period taught us anything, they weren't even prepared for that reality when it came so God help us if they ever accidentally formed government!
The reality is this party is a King Maker and until they start campaigning on that reality they will remain irrelevant. Their whole approach should be that they are "the party that keeps government in check" and I predict they would get amazing results if they beat that drum because there are a lot of people who are nervous about the main two parties right now.
Instead they'll campaign under the fantasy they have even a faint chance of forming the next government despite most polls currently show them losing half their existing seats to the Conservatives.
The only time any party should discuss what they'd do if they formed the next Government is when they're riding so high in the polls that's a possibility.
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