{"id":2671,"date":"2010-06-04T08:46:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T12:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=2671"},"modified":"2010-06-04T08:46:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T12:46:00","slug":"in-favour-of-a-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=2671","title":{"rendered":"In Favour of a Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I posted about why a Liberal-NDP merger is unlikely to work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, after listening to the arguments of many Liberals over the past week, I have come a new conclusion. I now support a merger.<\/p>\n

A merger between the Liberal and the Conservative<\/em> parties.<\/p>\n

I know many of you will laugh, but let’s look at this analytically. The main argument being advanced in favour of a Liberal-NDP merger or coalition is that we need to get back into power. Well, a Liberal-Conservative merger is the quickest road back to power. While the math isn’t there<\/a> for a “Liberal-Democrat” win, even if half <\/strong><\/em>of all Liberal voters jumped to the NDP, the Liberal-Conservatives would still win 207 seats<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And that number is likely a conservative estimate (so to speak). After all, the Liberal Party has voted with the Conservatives more often than with the NDP in recent years. Their MPs have been largely interchangeable: Belinda Stronach, Scott Brison and Keith Martin left the Tories for the Liberals; David Emerson, Joe Comuzzi, and Wajid Khan walked the other way. When was the last time a Liberal MP joined the NDP <\/em>caucus?<\/p>\n

And, while there is no history to justify a Liberal-NDP merger, there was once upon a time a Liberal-Conservative Party<\/a> in Canada, led by John A. MacDonald.<\/p>\n

Believe me, I too see how bleak the future looks for the Liberals. After all, we have been out of power for four years<\/em>, while Harper sits with a towering 34%<\/em> in the polls. I cannot imagine a more hopeless situation.<\/p>\n

A merger is the only <\/em>way out. And since the only way to power <\/em>is by merging with the Conservatives, I urge my fellow Liberals to look there, rather than to the NDP. This would not be a coalition of the losers! We would not need Bloc Quebecois support!<\/p>\n

We would no longer have to worry about the Tories running negative ads against our leader – as he would be their<\/em> leader! We would become competitive in Western Canada! We would govern for a century!<\/p>\n

My fellow Liberals, I urge you to join me in supporting this exciting proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I posted about why a Liberal-NDP merger is unlikely to work. However, after listening to the arguments of many Liberals over the past week, I have come a new conclusion. I now support a merger. A merger between the Liberal and the Conservative parties. I know many of you will laugh, but let’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}