Answering My Tyee Question - Vote NDP or Not?

Thanks to Idealistic Pragmatist, a thoughtful New Democratic Party activist, for taking the time to consider the question I posed in my Tyee column of a couple of days ago. She's crafted a well-reasoned and convincing argument in the form of advice to NDP-Liberal swing voters, which I'll take the liberty of summing up in her own words:

If they live in ridings where the NDP candidate can beat the Tory, they should vote NDP, and if they live in ridings where the Liberal candidate can beat the Tory, they should vote Liberal.

Some time ago, the Pragmatist presented the best defence I've read of the strange evolution of the NDP's position on Afghanistan and its tortured reasoning on the question. I disagree with her and the NDP's Afghanistan position (sorry, Pragmatist, but "Support Our Troops, Bring 'Em Home" is all it amounts to, no matter how it's dressed up). But I consider her an honourable adversary in that debate, which is to say she's not objectively pro-fascist, like so many in Canada's so-called "anti-war" crowd.

Taking the Pragmatist's cue, Michel Fortin ponders the implications of Stephane Dion's victory at the Liberal leadership convention and concludes: "Ce que j’aimerais voir au Canada, c’est une coalition gouvernementale ; une coalition où différents partis s’engagent à former le gouvernement ensemble en mettant en commun leur programmes respectifs et en gouvernant sur la base du compromis." Which is more or less an argument in favour of a real coalition, negotiated by compromise, rather than simply a Liberal minority backed by the NDP.

The best possible scenario, at least for the long term, would be for voters of all stripes to revive the push for proportional representation. Here's an essay I wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press in favour of some form of pro-rep, from four years ago. See also the Pragmatist's view (an excellent analysis) and Vues d'ici as well.