Election prediction?

[Jason]

Yeah, I see what you mean. I don't think it's good for the country on the whole to have what I consider an extremist party (not terrorist extremist, not yet, anyway) as part of our system.

'd much rather see what happened in Alberta: disgruntled Conservatives left and formed the Wild Rose party. More to the right but not extreme right. Of course, it didn't stay that way. Having the "hordes of socialists" with the reins of power really had a way of having them put their differences aside. The PPC is also anti-science (a LOT of anti-vaxxers in it, including their leader) and pro-Trump. We really don't need that kind of divisiveness in Canada but I guess it's too late now.

I'll admit I liked the idea of them splitting the conservative vote to keep them out. It's amazing that the split in the progressive vote, Liberals, NDP and now Greens hasn't prevented the Liberals from attaining power.

I also think the Liberals and Conservatives have both moved toward the middle. We also have a saying in the NDP that the Liberals campaign from the Left and then govern from the Right. I think it's more that they govern from the centre, to be fair. They've been progressive on social policy but conservative on fiscal policy and their bending to the will of big business (they've cut corporate taxes more than the Conservatives did in power over the last 25 years).

Trudeau used the word progressive a lot in the debate; I don't know if anyone else noticed that. I don't think he's ever used it before. He's definitely going after NDP voters. But he can't use scare tactics of past elections casting them as social conservatives. They tried but it didn't stick.