What's Past Is Prologue...

FiftyPlusPoint44Percent

SolutionVille

The Past...

...By 1964 the pro-Medicare forces in the country were riding the crest of public opinion during a period when the political culture was moving to the left. The political alignment of national parties saw six years of minority governments over three elections between 1962 and 1968, and this favoured those political forces attempting to move the country in a more progressive direction. The NDP was growing and this strengthened left Liberals who argued that their party must protect their left flank. This in turn encouraged the red Tories within the Progressive Conservatives, who argued that the party must move left to remain electorally competitive. All of this was occurring during a minority situation when an election might occur at any time and no party wanted to be caught on the wrong side of a popular issue like public Medicare...


And the Prologue...

The leadership of the Liberals and the NDP have reached a tentative agreement that would see the NDP support the Liberal government to keep it in power until 2025 in exchange for movement on key NDP priorities, CBC News has learned...

{snip}

...The agreement would see the NDP back the Liberals in confidence votes. In return, the Liberals will follow through on some elements of national pharmacare and dental care programs — programs that have long been promoted by the NDP....

****

Meanwhile, as David Climenhaga points out, the near future will very likely be filled with the screamers attempting to equate the word 'coalition' with Satan's playground.

And/or some such terribly anti-democratic thing...

If the deal the federal Liberals and New Democrats seem to have cooked up to keep the Trudeau Government in power until 2025 in return for national pharmacare and dental care programs turns out to be for real, brace yourselves for a spectacular national tantrum by the Conservatives led by, well, whoever.

The new leader of the party of Stephen Harper may not have been chosen yet, but his or her reaction is a certainty. Expect to hear the word “coalition” a lot, delivered with a snarl and a curled lip.

You’ll also be hearing how a deal to maintain the confidence of the House of Commons long enough to establish some national programs of value to the Dominion is “undemocratic,” even “dictatorial,” and undoubtedly “socialistic.”

Indeed, Conservative interim leader and soon-to-be Stornoway resident Candice Bergen has already called the idea “an NDP-Liberal coalition” – note the order of the putative partners – and complained loudly that “Canadians did not vote for an NDP government.”...


Personally, just like back in run-up to national medicare days, I reckon that the harder the screamers scream the better the deals will ultimately be for Canadians.

_____

Subheader?...The combined percentage of Liberal/NDP votes in the 2021 federal election.

Raymond Tomlin has a great piece on how Lester Pearson worked with Tommy Douglas to start to create our national medicare system (not to mention student loan and pension plan systems)  ...Here.

And not all screamers (and those who seek to sow politically motivated cynicism) use loud voices.



.