Coalition politics: Some Canadians think the NDP and the Liberals should unite to defeat the Conservatives in the coming election. The party leaders are not united on that, even as an option.
What do you think? Is a coalition between those parties possible ...and should they make it clear before the election?

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It was hard to miss, this past week, the continuing speculation leading up to the fall election that the Liberals and NDP could get together after the vote to defeat the Conservatives. That is if one of them didn't win the election outright.

Some of the talk was spurred by Liberal leader Justin Trudeau musing that a coalition might be possible. The next day he clarified his thoughts and declaratively quashed the idea that the Liberals would participate in any coalition. Mr Trudeau said there are too many policy differences between the parties to make it work. But leaders have been known to change their minds after all NDP leader Thomas Mulcair in 2012 also categorically dismissed the idea but now he says the NDP would be open to negotiate.

Is a coalition something Canadians would accept especially if before the vote at least one of the parties says it is not an option? Would having that as a clear option change the way Canadians might vote?

Some of you might remember the similar talk about 'uniting the right' back in the late 1990's when small 'c' conservatives were divided between two parties, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives. The wish then was to defeat the Liberals.

Uniting two parties can be like herding cats and when they are as long established as the Liberals and NDP, it would be near impossible. But a coalition is something much more feasible, and Canada has a history of those two parties cooperating to hold power. In 1972 Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau cooperated with the NDP led by David Lewis. In Ontario in 1985 Liberal leader David Peterson enlisted the help of NDP leader Bob Rae to govern. Also, in Saskatchewan in 1999 NDP Premier Roy Romanow got the tiny Liberal Party to back him.

Coalitions, accords, agreements whatever you call them are all part of the political process but to be accepted by the public, they must be seen as legitimate. The attempted deal between the Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc after the election of 2008 was seen by many, especially in the West, as unfair for several reasons, one them being because during the election campaign the parties had denied they would cooperate.

What would make a coalition legitimate in your eyes. Would it work between these two parties as Justin Trudeau has already pointed out the policy differences between them are considerable. Some joke that the Conservatives would make a better coalition partner for the Liberals. I don't think Mr Trudeau agrees.

Our question today: "Is a Liberal-NDP coalition possible and should they make it clear before the election?"

John Ivison
​Political Columnist with the National Post
Twitter: @IvisonJ

Dominic LeBlanc
​Liberal Party House Leader and Member of Parliament for Beausejour.

Craig Scott
NDP Member of Parliament for Toronto-Danforth and Official Opposition Critic for Democratic and Parliamentary Reform
Twitter: @CraigScottNDP

Janice Mackinnon
​Former Finance Minister of Saskatchewan (under NDP Premier Roy Romanow) and Professor of History and Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan.

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