To the Editor,
Uniting the centre left into, say, the Liberal Democratic Party is long overdue. The new party would more closely represent the Canadian electorate in values and parliamentary seats. NDP leader Tom Mulcair has lost close to 60 seats in this election so his position is very weak.
Many centre-left voters would love to see this merger as it would end vote splitting and strategic voting in the future. It would also clearly illustrate Conservative strength and importance at about 30 per cent.
Hopefully Justin Trudeau will find time for this later in his mandate. Canada is a liberal country with its social programs that were all brought in by Liberal-NDP co-operation in the past.
R.G. BurnettNanaimo
To the Editor,
The long-awaited federal election has come and gone and we now have a new government and new prime minister. The tide came in for Justin Trudeau and went out for Stephen Harper, as is the way of our democracy.
The question now becomes whether or not the electorate made an intelligent decision that will ultimately prove good for the country.
Trudeau has made no less than 171 promises on important categories such as government, environment and security which until fulfilled are debts unpaid.
Without releasing detailed costs of his platform, Trudeau has committed billions of dollars in spending on infrastructure, First Nations education, youth jobs and childcare benefits, all of which are worthy projects but will require increased taxes and a return to deficit spending in a time of global economic instability.
These promises will increase government spending to the tune of billions of dollars and it may well be that the middle class gets stuck paying the bill. This will be no “sunny way.”
Gerald HallNanoose Bay