Stoddard Online

Stoddard Online After careful thought and consideration of all parties involved in the upcoming federal election, I, like many other Canadians have formulated certain opinions, and thus, have made predictions with respect to the outcome on January 23.

I am of the view that this election will spell the virtual demise of the NDP in the house of commons. It can be argued that this party is going into the federal election with no real platform, but with a very real agenda. The reality of the situation is, it is a hidden agenda. In other words, feast off the mistakes of the front runners without ever having to stalk the prey, similar to the way the hyena pack dines on the African plains. In this case however, the leader of the pack, Mr. Layton, may have some deep political wounds to lick.

I do not believe for a moment that Jack Layton can win personal re-election in a Toronto riding. Toronto ridings are afterall, representative of the financial capital of Canada. Unlike the Liberal and Conservative parties, the NDP has no track record. Across Canada provincially, any time that the NDP has held office they have never been able to hang on. They are not a party that gets elected on platforms, but rather as a result of protest votes, and as a result, a seesaw battle will prevail with the two old parties to scoop them up. True, the track records of the old parties has been less than desirable at times, however, their presence has always been felt, with the exception of the election that saw Kim Campbell and the Tories ousted from the Hill, and that particular vote was nothing more than the electorate thumbing their noses at Brian Mulroney and crew in a protest vote. Unfortunately for the electorate, it produced the Bloc Quebecois as the opposition.

Now the big question, if the NDP loses most of their seats across Canada, who will emerge the victor? That is the haunting question for both parties. I am of the opinion that the Conservatives will pick up most of the seats lost by the NDP.

As tomorrow will be my last posting prior to the election, I shall be publishing further predictions of some of the key ridings, and as well, my predictions regarding seat totals for all the parties.

Please note that there will be no further election postings on this web page after Sunday midnight EST, January 22, until all the polls have closed across Canada on January 23, 2006.