Regardless of when the official announcement is made, the federal election campaign has been underway for some time.
Photo-ops of myriad funding announcements — some new, some rehashed — have exploded like the wildfires of B.C., while the requisite talk of coalitions has entered the campaign dialogue.
Veteran B.C. NDP MP Nathan Cullen stirred the discussion again this month when he mused about his New Democrats and the Liberals forming a coalition after the Oct. 19 vote, the idea being a minority Conservative government could be topped by an NDP-Liberal coalition.
Perhaps Cullen is aiming too late for such a coalition to have an effect in Ottawa. Perhaps the two parties needed to join forces well before this election campaign was even a speck in the political distance.
We all know some recent political polls have been wrong. But, many have been on the mark.
The latest poll at CBC’s ThreeHundredEight.com has the Conservatives and New Democrats in a deadlock, with the Liberals trailing. A Postmedia-commissioned poll has the Conservatives building a solid lead over the NDP, with the Liberals in third.
It took a marriage of Reform (Canadian Alliance) and the Progressive Conservatives to finally knock off the Liberals, who held power for more than a decade.
It appears it will take a similar union on the centre-left to oust the Conservatives for at least a four-year cycle.
Based on the polls, we are looking at a minority government, with either the Conservatives or New Democrats standing atop a shaky Parliament.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has steadfastly refused to entertain a coalition with the NDP.
After this election, if the polling numbers prove correct, Trudeau may have no other choice by the time voters next fill out their ballots.
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