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Bad idea, says Dimitri Pantazopoulos, the former Harper pollster, about the Liberal-NDP merger/coalition/partnership.
The principal of Praxicus Public Strategies says the debate that is raging in official Ottawa over a Liberal-NDP arrangement is the “most over-promoted bad idea since the Slap Chop!”
“He (Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff) could very well hand the Conservatives a majority government through this latest stupidity,” the pollster says.
Mr. Pantazopoulos is the latest politico to weigh in on the debate du jour on Parliament Hill.
His view is instructive as he comes at it from having worked for and advised the Reform Party, the Canadian Alliance and Stephen Harper.
The coalition debate was reignited over the weekend by comments from Mr. Ignatieff. He said that a coalition government would be “legitimate,” but he wouldn’t contemplate one until he hears from the voters after an election.
Mr. Pantazopoulos says the Liberal Leader’s musings are simply confusing Canadians, especially Liberals.
Indeed, the pollster compared Mr. Ignatieff’s statements to the controversial decision in 2008 by former Liberal leader Stephane Dion not to run a candidate against Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.
She was running against Defence Minister Peter MacKay in his Nova Scotia riding.
“Essentially what he (Mr. Dion) did was he gave Liberal voters permission to vote for the Green Party. … A lot of people were looking at this going, ‘Okay, Stéphane. You are a bit of an embarrassment. Maybe I will just park my vote with the Greens right now.”
And he believes Mr. Ignatieff has done something similar – given permission to Liberal voters to vote for the NDP.
Most importantly, Mr. Pantazopoulos says, the Ignatieff musings “bring the Liberals to the left.”
“It’s going to open up room for the Conservatives on the right and it’s going to bring voters over to the Conservative Party, eventually.
Some so-called “Blue Liberals” will be concerned that there is a possibility that after an election the NDP could be dictating some of the policies, he says.
And that could drive them to the Conservatives.
As for his Slap Chop analogy:
“Slap Chop is a cheap piece of junk,” he says. “Ultimately all the singing commercials and raps do not make you into a gourmet chef.”
EKOS pollster Frank Graves, however, has a different view. He sees no evidence of damage, asserting that Mr. Ignatieff’s statements regarding coalitions are “relatively cautious.”
“There have undoubtedly been impacts on the punditocracy and within political circles,” he says. “The public’s attitudes to coalitions are poorly formed and capable of considerable flux.”
And he says there are some “pitfalls” as political parties begin to talk about such partnerships.
“Should these arrangements be signalled before or after elections?” said Mr. Graves. “Should the relations be informal coalitions, explicit legal collations or outright mergers? So far there has been little clarity from the public on these issues but we expect voters would welcome not punish greater candour from leaders as to what to expect in the future.”
