Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The future coalition

In figuring out the likelihood that the NDP can keep up the momentum that's propelled it to official opposition status, one of the major questions figures to be whether votes last week will translate into additional support in the future. And there's more great news on that front: in addition to winning the support of 41% of recent immigrants, the NDP also nearly doubled its opponents when it came to attracting the youth vote (after a period of years where support had generally been split four ways among Canada's national parties).

Of course, there's plenty of work to be done from that starting point - both to turn one-time support into a long-term habit among voters in both groups, and to try to boost turnout among younger voters. But one would be hard-pressed to identify two sources of support which bode better for the NDP's chances of building on its 2011 success in the longer term.

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