but any government who do needs to win now needs to acknowledge they exist, and do what they can to earn their trust.
No, they're only relevant to the Conservatives (because those radical, far right-wing votes aren't available to the Liberals), and appeasing the 5% radical extreme-right fringe that makes up those PPC voters would kill the CPC with moderate swing voters who make up way more than 5%.
You're basically demanding the CPC commit electoral suicide otherwise you'll take your vote to the PPC and ensure the CPC loses. It's a no-win situation for the Conservatives in a vote-split scenario.
History has already proven Conservatives can never win elections when there's another right-wing party out there splitting the vote. See the whole Reform party saga. All the Reform party accomplished was to ensure the Liberals ruled for 13 years straight.
In a country that's 60-70% left-wing, Conservatives only get to govern because the left-wing vote is split. Split the right-wing vote too, and you get perpetual Liberal rule.
I think we can safely say that "acknowledging that they exist" and "committing electoral suicide" has some play-between, no?
Assuming you are correct and 100% of the PPC voters are just disenfranchised CPC (I know the number isnt 100, but I won't argue that here) the CPC has been given a warning that there's a leak on the ship. Maybe they won't sacrifice the hull to fix it, but it might start with a simple nod, or something inoffensive to the general public that can be done to appease the PPC.
For example, the CPC could take an anti-cartel stance, they wouldn't lose much of their current standings, but they'd have to really look if the PQ vote lost would make up for it or not. They could take a strong anti-mandate stance for health services like vaccines, masks and etc - and they'd have to really look at how much of their current base would boot them for doing so.
While the Reform party is the direction it's headed, the CPC agrees with you that as long as the right isn't split they can win - which means they know the PPC is something they should be tackling now before it becomes another Reform. While Reform became so powerful that it ended in securing 10 years of CPC rule when it merged, they have an interesting choice to make because the next election is going to be sooner rather than later, and if the PPC can pick up that many voters in that short a time, they surely have demonstrated their ability to galvanize and take advantage of weakness in conservative politics.
The CPC has tried courting the liberal voters by just giving them what Trudeau would have anyways - but that strategy failed three times in a row. It might just be that they need to learn the lesson the Alberta UPC did and work hard to unify conservatives while the lefties break off into more dumb little offshoots - a strong NDP means a strong CPC - Jack Layton overseeing the Harper years is a testament to this. An important part of learning that lesson might be seriously looking at the PPC.
Maybe it is as you say, and the PPC will die in obscurity worshipping Bernier for 20 years getting 2% of the vote, becoming a second fringe-fringe party; you certainly wouldn't see the big left-shill media actually waking up and making hate articles about it though. Normally, tiny fringe wastes of time like the PPC weren't even worthy of cbc's time, but now you see them standing up and shrieking "racist". To me, that's a sign that, for weal or woe, the PPC's rise is relevant, and the CPC needs to do something about it.
I really do not understand how PPC voters are assumed to have CPC as second choice. PPC is about a set of principals, right or wrong; I voted PPC, but was always NDP. I think the political scale is more than one dimensional.
This. For a while, I was in support of the CPC until O'Toole took the dive and flip-flopped to allow 20% of the CPC vote to go to the PPC. The PPC is already set up to split the conservative vote, which I didn't realize until I saw the poll numbers, and said, "hmmmm". I knew Trudeau would win, because the whole election was a sham to waste taxpayer money and let Trudeau win. Even, if say, the CPC did win, it only matters who counts the votes, they would have just committed election fraud, and let Trudeau win anyways. People are sick of Trudeau, there is no way he won legitimately, and I often wonder if he cheated his last term. The neck and neck poll numbers was designed to give Trudeau some air of legitmacy. Either way, this proves elections are a waste of time and money. Trudeau was guaranteed to win. O'Toole threw the election on purpose.
If what you say is true, then their strategy was flawless and they picked up more swing voters than they lost to the PPC. And why would they want those fringe, racist, extremists to vote for their party anyhow? They are the scum of the earth!
No, they're only relevant to the Conservatives (because those radical, far right-wing votes aren't available to the Liberals), and appeasing the 5% radical extreme-right fringe that makes up those PPC voters would kill the CPC with moderate swing voters who make up way more than 5%.
You're basically demanding the CPC commit electoral suicide otherwise you'll take your vote to the PPC and ensure the CPC loses. It's a no-win situation for the Conservatives in a vote-split scenario.
History has already proven Conservatives can never win elections when there's another right-wing party out there splitting the vote. See the whole Reform party saga. All the Reform party accomplished was to ensure the Liberals ruled for 13 years straight.
In a country that's 60-70% left-wing, Conservatives only get to govern because the left-wing vote is split. Split the right-wing vote too, and you get perpetual Liberal rule.
I think we can safely say that "acknowledging that they exist" and "committing electoral suicide" has some play-between, no?
Assuming you are correct and 100% of the PPC voters are just disenfranchised CPC (I know the number isnt 100, but I won't argue that here) the CPC has been given a warning that there's a leak on the ship. Maybe they won't sacrifice the hull to fix it, but it might start with a simple nod, or something inoffensive to the general public that can be done to appease the PPC.
For example, the CPC could take an anti-cartel stance, they wouldn't lose much of their current standings, but they'd have to really look if the PQ vote lost would make up for it or not. They could take a strong anti-mandate stance for health services like vaccines, masks and etc - and they'd have to really look at how much of their current base would boot them for doing so.
While the Reform party is the direction it's headed, the CPC agrees with you that as long as the right isn't split they can win - which means they know the PPC is something they should be tackling now before it becomes another Reform. While Reform became so powerful that it ended in securing 10 years of CPC rule when it merged, they have an interesting choice to make because the next election is going to be sooner rather than later, and if the PPC can pick up that many voters in that short a time, they surely have demonstrated their ability to galvanize and take advantage of weakness in conservative politics.
The CPC has tried courting the liberal voters by just giving them what Trudeau would have anyways - but that strategy failed three times in a row. It might just be that they need to learn the lesson the Alberta UPC did and work hard to unify conservatives while the lefties break off into more dumb little offshoots - a strong NDP means a strong CPC - Jack Layton overseeing the Harper years is a testament to this. An important part of learning that lesson might be seriously looking at the PPC.
Maybe it is as you say, and the PPC will die in obscurity worshipping Bernier for 20 years getting 2% of the vote, becoming a second fringe-fringe party; you certainly wouldn't see the big left-shill media actually waking up and making hate articles about it though. Normally, tiny fringe wastes of time like the PPC weren't even worthy of cbc's time, but now you see them standing up and shrieking "racist". To me, that's a sign that, for weal or woe, the PPC's rise is relevant, and the CPC needs to do something about it.
Ham only sees the extremes. There is no reasoning with him on this point.
I really do not understand how PPC voters are assumed to have CPC as second choice. PPC is about a set of principals, right or wrong; I voted PPC, but was always NDP. I think the political scale is more than one dimensional.
You can't even spell principles.
This. For a while, I was in support of the CPC until O'Toole took the dive and flip-flopped to allow 20% of the CPC vote to go to the PPC. The PPC is already set up to split the conservative vote, which I didn't realize until I saw the poll numbers, and said, "hmmmm". I knew Trudeau would win, because the whole election was a sham to waste taxpayer money and let Trudeau win. Even, if say, the CPC did win, it only matters who counts the votes, they would have just committed election fraud, and let Trudeau win anyways. People are sick of Trudeau, there is no way he won legitimately, and I often wonder if he cheated his last term. The neck and neck poll numbers was designed to give Trudeau some air of legitmacy. Either way, this proves elections are a waste of time and money. Trudeau was guaranteed to win. O'Toole threw the election on purpose.
If what you say is true, then their strategy was flawless and they picked up more swing voters than they lost to the PPC. And why would they want those fringe, racist, extremists to vote for their party anyhow? They are the scum of the earth!