The federal New Democrats plan to make pharmacare a central issue in the next election if the Liberals do not meet the bar the opposition party has set for legislation to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.
Also if they pull a non-confidence vote and pass it, we’ll nearly certainly get a CPC government
This is why I never really liked Jack Layton. I was not a Paul Martin fan, but I’d have preferred a Martin minority to the Harper years.
Did he torpedo Martin? I didn’t have a stake in Canadian politics at the time.
Yup.
I really don’t know what Layton was thinking. No matter how bad Martin was–and the policies he put through, especially as Finance minister, are a part of why we’re in the trouble we’re in now–if he (Layton) really believed in what was best for Canada, letting Harper anywhere near the levers of power was asking for trouble.
Singh is in a similar position: support a non-confidence vote and we end up with Poillievre, which, as bad as Trudeau might be, would be so much worse.
Maybe Layton was thinking Harper would be constrained to a minority in perpetuity because the Conservatives pretty odious? I think he underestimated the control Harper had over his caucus and his (Harper’s) ability to sell the CPC brand.
