Spoken like a true opposition party:

"We haven't gone to the point of analysing the proposals that are going to be brought forward by the government, or to prepare our own,"

Jack Layton regarding the Conservative policy corner stone of a GST cut.

Well 17.8% of Canadians, this is the efffecttive third party that you elected. One with no strategy ideas of how to gain an in with the Conservative government. How does the NDP's post modern social policy work to thier advantage when dealing with a government with largely reactionary or non-existant views? How does an economically interventionist party deal with an economically continentalist party? What tensions will the Conservative agenda create in the NDP caucus regarding nationalism? Did anybody in the NDP heirarchy think to ask these questions. I could tell the NDP exacly how to play its continenalist, interventionist, post-modernist, asymetral federalist, and delegationary tendencies in the next parliament, but then I'd be giving non-obvious strategy avice to a party that I oppose on all but one of those fronts and on that one I am weakly supportive. All I can say to the NDP is:

Rona Ambrose - po-mo
Peter MacKay - strong party
Laurence Cannon - asymetricalist
Laurie Hawn - continentalist, but you'll have to hold your nose on military integration
Loyala Hearn - the closest thing you'll get to an interventionist in the Conservative party

There. That's as close as you come to having an in with this party. Hope you enjoyed your 4.8 billion dolars in new spending. The Conservatives will claw that back and more. Plus there's no electoral reform, so the next 5% of the popular vote could easily yield Mr. Harper a majority. Ah well, all the better to destroy the Liberals and replace them with a party that is less inclusinve and more in bed with special interests.

I'm now going to take a shower.