NS Liberal Party: The middle ground

I've tried, during this campaign, to view the options as unbiased as possible. After all, as mentioned in a previous post, I have respect for the NDP and their agenda, and consider one of their MLA's a personal friend. However, I made the choice to join the Liberal Party of Canada (and, by virtue of that, Nova Scotia) in 2006 and have not felt the urge to turn back since.

So, after having heard the rhetoric, read the platforms (the PC haven't released one yet as of this post, but they've let us know the just of what they'd do) and talked to several of the candidates around the HRM, I've come to the conclusion that the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia is indeed the party that presents the best choice for Nova Scotians. Now, granted it's not exactly earth-shattering that a Liberal blogger would endorse the Liberal Party, but consider that, despite my affiliation, I'm prepared to give people the benefit of the doubt in most cases. I'll temper my endorsement, in fact, by stating that the NDP likely won't do a horrible job, should they win government.

I say "should" rather than "when" because, despite my endorsement at the beginning of this thing, I still see this as a 3-way race. MacDonald hasn't done much to justify that, mind, but stranger things have happened before. My feeling is that, if he can convince Nova Scotians enough that the NDP bogeyman is too risky, he can bring enough wanderers back to the Tory camp to scratch out a bare minority government. It's unlikely, but possible.

On the other hand, Darrell Dexter and the NDP have the momentum here and so they seem most likely to hit the finish line in first place at this point. They've been pretty low-key so far, keeping their head down and riding the wave of PC resentment. It's worked for them so far, but it also leaves them open to being outdone.

So, what we have here are two parties whose main platform is built around, "We aren't the other guy." and I think this is a great advantage for Stephen McNeil and the Liberals. They've stayed mostly out of the back-and-forth and actually made their campaign about ideas and issues, rather than finger-pointing. They've made a point of running a positive campaign, refraining from any attack ads and haven't been afraid to put forward ideas that are new, different and, possibly, open to criticism. Instead of the "Risky NDP/Risky PC" games from the "frontrunners", Liberal ads focus on McNeil's smiling face and an actual plan for the province. That's why I believe the Liberal Party will become the Official Opposition after the smoke clears, perhaps even coming up the middle to manage a minority government; they've been the only party who has stood on its own, instead of basing itself around what the others are not. While the NDP and PC are playing games, the Liberals are talking about ideas. That's not to say that maybe there's some merit to the concerns about the NDP taking charge during these hard economic times (remember Ontario? [sorry, Bob!]).

To put it in one line: the Liberal Party is an option for those who are tired of the PC, but don't trust the NDP.