"Unite the Left" scenario

[RI Democrat 15]

This was an idea I'd kicked around a long time ago, and in light of recent developments I think I'm going to give it another try.

Basically, my idea is that most Liberal and NDP MPs join together to form the United Progressives of Canada (UPC), but the Liberal and New Democratic parties have not actually dissolved, and there are some scattered holdouts among both elected officials and voters. I will probably still have to use the Britain 2010 engine - I doubt I could handle the complexity of creating a new party and editing every single riding in the Canada 2011 .xml format.

My question is this: can anyone help me identify any hard-left New Democrats or centrist/center-right Liberals who would likely refuse the merger? I'd prefer sitting MPs, but past candidates and MPs would be fine too. For the Liberals, I'm thinking Maurizio Bevilacqua (who publicly opposed a merger a while back), Scott Brison (given that he came from the PCs), and maybe Tony Valeri (given his 2004 nomination battle with Sheila Copps), and for the NDP, Svend Robinson and Bev Meslo. Can anybody think of any others? (I'm not planning on including Ignatieff, on the assumption that he would stay retired from politics in this scenario.)

[SDinCanada 0]

The obvious one that comes to mind is John Manley and his block of centrist, fiscally conservative liberals. Manley himself did not run this election, but there are several liberals in the prairies (particularly manitoba) that fall into this group. I don't think you would have a lot of division within the NDP over a merger, it would mainly come from the centre right of the liberal party. Sorry I can't give names, but best of luck designing it, it should be very interesting.

[RI Democrat 15]

The obvious one that comes to mind is John Manley and his block of centrist, fiscally conservative liberals. Manley himself did not run this election, but there are several liberals in the prairies (particularly manitoba) that fall into this group. I don't think you would have a lot of division within the NDP over a merger, it would mainly come from the centre right of the liberal party.

There are still Liberals in the prairies?

In all seriousness, thanks for your reply. I know of Ralph Goodale in Wascana - does he fit that mold? As for Manitoba, it looks like the only Liberal MP is Kevin Lamoureux in Winnipeg.

[SDinCanada 0]

There are still Liberals in the prairies?

In all seriousness, thanks for your reply. I know of Ralph Goodale in Wascana - does he fit that mold? As for Manitoba, it looks like the only Liberal MP is Kevin Lamoureux in Winnipeg.

I'm not as certain about Mr. Goodale due to the fact that he always seems to be given the title of 'intern leader' and could possible go with the party (the NDP would love another seat in Manitoba). Many of the liberal candidates in the prairies could be considered centre-right (I'm assuming parts of Northern Ontario would be the same).

The interesting thing (though its a lot of work) would be to figure out which Candidates would likely get preference. If there was to be a split, some liberals would shift to the tories, and some would go to the NDP, but I'm not sure how to rate which Candidates would win the nomination for their new respective parties.

[RI Democrat 15]

Well, Goodale is in Saskatchewan, not Manitoba.

Anyway, I've worked my way through BC and part of Alberta so far. Generally, I'm giving the nominations for the new party to whoever got more votes in last week's election between the Liberal and NDP candidates. I've identified a few people as not joining the new party based on what I found about them online, and I also picked a few others as holdouts at random just to add some variety.

[gopprogressive 1,063]

Somebody already did with the "Liberal Democratic Party" of Canada scenario.

[RI Democrat 15]

Somebody already did with the "Liberal Democratic Party" of Canada scenario.

I know, but I think that one was set in a different year and had the Liberals and NDP entirely absent.

[gopprogressive 1,063]

I know, but I think that one was set in a different year and had the Liberals and NDP entirely absent.

True.