Reid Scott makes shift to Liberals

The Liberals have, to be honest, over the last few years seen a slow drip of people leaving the party due to scandal and a lack of focused leadership. Stéphane Dion's proposals on the environment may have finally stopped that. But even I wasn't expecting that a titan of the NDP, Reid Scott, would quit his old party and join the Liberals.

Mind you it will take more than an influential statesperson and former judge in the prime of his life to create the tidal wave needed to bring the Liberals back into power. However, the main point is that Dion has gotten Canadians talking about the choices we have to make. PMS' performance at the G8 summit, which I would call a non-performance at all, proves he has nothing left on his agenda other than those three famous words: "I'll Sue Ya." To win Scott over may be a moral victory since it doesn't affect the seating arrangement in Parliament all, but it's a victory nonetheless. Still, Dion needs to focus on getting people of younger generations who may be wavering to join his team -- losing Outremont to Tom Mulcair some months ago underscores this point.

As for the traditional left-wing grouping in Canada: Wither the NDP? Hardly ... but it should be worried if it continues to lose support not to the Liberal Party but to the Greens. In marginal races, a shift of just a few hundred votes may be enough to give some districts over to the Liberals. At that point the socialists may very well wonder why they didn't insist on PR during the last Parliament instead of a budget amendment ... because in the long run rep by pop may be the only thing to ensure the long term survival of all parties no matter where they are on the spectrum.

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