Why worry about a merger?

[jsburbidge]

In the current context, why would the NDP and Liberals worry about a full-scale merger, or even an electoral coalition?

They're in opposition; their biggest downside is that they don't want to oppose, because they're afraid of an election without votes.

Collectively (together with the Greens and the Bloc) they get well over 50% of the vote.  However, all the parties on the relative left have enough differences that a merger or even a coalition on a full-scale model is fraught with difficulty.

So why not (for all four parties):

- Jointly publish a list of actual or likely Conservative initiatives which they jointly oppose, and announce that they will unite on voting any or all of them down, even if they are in a confidence measure;

- Actually whip the vote on these measures, and ensure that members turn up;

- In the event of an election, run on these items as a common platform, while also retaining the freedom to run on otherwise very divergent platforms of their own;

- In the likely event of another minority government, point out that whereas the Tories may have a mandate to govern generally under standard rules (plurality of the vote) these particular well-publicised positions have the support of a majority of the voters, and continue to be willing to vote on them.

They might actually begin go get positive support for facing down broadly unpopular moves; and they could claim, and continue to claim, electoral legitimacy.

They might not get into power on the next election, but they would be ina  position to have a powerful effect as defenders of a left-of-Conservatice social consensus (well, majority, roughly corresponding to the urban areas of the country).