How long till the NDP Quebec caucus splits off?

[Bragi]

My bet is that the NDP Quebec caucus will separate from the main caucus within a year or so due to splits over Quebec nationalism and sovereignty issues. The likely victory of the PQ in the next Quebec election makes this split certain, since the Quebec NDP will want to support the PQ.

The reality is that the Quebec NDP MPs will not long want to sit around putting water in its wine to accommodate the non-Quebec minority in Parliament, let alone accommodate the views of a "national" federalist party that has few (or no) actual members in the ridings represented by these Quebec MPs.

This will leave the NDP with 44 seats outside Quebec. This is a good showing for them, but once you remove Quebec from the picture, it was not all that historic, since it is only 1 more seat than they got under Broadbent in 1988.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[CHIMO]

2. The NDP's missing constitution

Where in the world is the federal NDP's constitution? It's not on the NDP's website, unlike any of the other national mainstream parties running in this election.

Now that the NDP is within shouting distance - maybe- of forming government, a lot of people might want to take a closer look at the party, at its founding goals and principles.

Questions to the NDP's media hotline yield the response that the NDP constitution is "an internal document", available to members only, and that the NDP is running on its platform, not on its constitution. And yet, anyone who wants to join the NDP has to first agree to abide by its constitution, presumably without getting a chance to read it.

The NDP's constitution is hard to ferret out, but there are copies to be found on the internet, dating from 2001 and 2003, and of course there's no way of telling if the ideas expressed in them still represent the NDP's thinking.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/04/the-ndps-missing-constitution.html

So just what is in the constitution?

[Bragi]

7. They gotta deal with that

The absence of a constitution could become a "birther" type of issue for the NDP if they don't address it. Time to cough up the document, I'd say.

[Bragi]

3. Damn, you outed me

On your points, in response:

- No, a split-off NDP Quebec caucus would not lose official opposition status. Given their seat count, they would BECOME THE OFFICIAL OPPOSITION.

- Yes, Jack's image helped get them their seats, but they know it isn't why they won. If it was all about Jack, then Quebeckers would have voted for the NDP in 2004, 2006, and 2008. In fact, the NDP vote in Quebec was a protest vote. People didn't wake up and suddenly decide they were all Jack-loving New Democrats after all.

Your point about me being a right wing CON plant is rather amusing. I've been hanging out at DU for many years now just hoping for an opportunity to divide the NDP. For sure.

[Very_Boring_Name]

6. One of Mr.Burch's sock puppets no doubt

I already reported him.

[craigmatic]

4. Yeah I was thinking that the Quebec NDP mps would lose the next election to the bloc.

[Bragi]

5. More likely they just become "Le Bloc nouveau"

If the NDP Quebec caucus splits off, then the remaining Bloc MPs would probably join that caucus.

And once the PQ wins provincially in Quebec, that caucus will support a Yes vote for independence, and its transformation into the "le Bloc nouveau" will be complete.