The buttons come down
Ian | 19 September, 2009 | 12:28Since the NDP voted with Harper yesterday and the Liberals didn’t, we can no longer count the number of confidence votes that the Liberals have propped up the Conservatives. While we can debate the merits of this, or even if the IgGrits are showing any more effective of an opposition by switching from auto-support to auto-oppose.
The real issue for the NDP though was months and months of bragging about how ineffective the Liberals were being. It guaranteed that eventually this situation would happen.
On Linda Duncan’s campaign we never “went negative.” While her supporters may have said nasty things about Jaffer, the official campaign was always focussed on why Linda Duncan should be the MP for Edmonton-Strathcona, and not about why the others shouldn’t. Of course it also through in a bunch of strategic voting hints to win over the Liberals, but it never attacked the Liberals either.
Positive campaigning, while harder, I think is the way all of the parties need to continue (and I have to commend Ignatieff for keeping on at least this message).
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I’d object to the commendation of Ignatieff. It seems to me he’s trying to have it both ways — keeping himself ostensibly above the fray, while having his MPs take cheap shots.
Iggy positive campaigning? Every time I hear him, he’s saying something negative, or saying he’s above the fray then saying something negative.
The fact is, the Liberals are too busy playing political games to be able to fit in a positive vision for Canadians.