This party may not be able to attract all New Democrats or all Liberals. That's okay – that doesn't mean it can't or won't be a success. Can it attract “Red Tories”? Disaffected voters? Young Canadians? Of course I have no idea. It depends on a whole host of factors. But I can certainly imagine it working. Are there enough like-minded Canadians who could get excited about this and put some skin in the game? Again, I have no idea.
Another big problem I had with certain pro-merger advocates is this notion that it's up to “elder statesmen” (read, old white guys) from both parties to hash something out behind closed doors and come out and tell us when it's done. The year is 2011, there is zero chance that's gonna work out. None.
But why not start a discussion between Liberals, New Democrats, Red Tories, and young people who have never been a member of a political party in their lives about a new vehicle – a new party. Consider it a blank slate. If we were starting from scratch, what would we fight for? How would we organize ourselves? So while there would still by definition be trade-offs (unless you start a new party by yourself, it's impossible for there not to be in politics), hopefully by starting something new, instead of squishing together two organizations with existing rules and structures, you could avoid the easy-to-imagine analysis of “who's taking over who,” “who won and who lost” that permeates so much Ottawa groupthink. Instead you'd create a new party for the next century. Naive potentially, I know.
The worst-case scenario? There's nothing there, both parties go on their merry way with new leaders and life goes on. Either there's something there to discuss, or not. Something that can be agreed to, or not. Something that a big enough group of caucus and membership of the parties are willing to leave their existing party in favour of, or not.
It is hard to imagine both the Liberals and NDP both being leaderless with uncertain futures at the same time for decades to come. While it may be counterintuitive to suggest that we should consider seizing the parallel leadership openings to ditch both parties entirely, I think it could be a path forward worth pursuing.
