On validation

Brian Topp's final entry in his e-mail exchange with Robert Silver is worth a read generally. But there's one point which deserves to be clarified in the NDP's messaging in light of the events of the last couple of months:

(I)f you're asking me, "why can't the NDP get more than 18% of the vote despite all this?" then I think your answer may be in your preamble. The next tranche of voters our party needs to convince are the ones withholding their support because they have never seen a federal NDP cabinet minister. And that's what they may need to see to pop the soap bubbles woven around them by the interests we try to reason with, as discussed above.

Or maybe not. In current circumstances, it would seem we're going to need to hit the right combination of hope that things really can change, with comfort that nothing foolish will be done, some other way. We've done so in many provinces. Our sister parties have succeeded in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries without the planet being destroyed by volcanoes. It can be done.

Now, I'm all for looking at other means of breaking down the all-too-often-repeated assumption that the possibility of the NDP in government should be seen as strange or threatening. But I definitely hope that Topp and the NDP's other strategists aren't leaving behind what should be one of the party's great gains from the progressive coalition.

After all, regardless of their failure to follow through on the coalition, every Lib MP has signed onto the idea that Canada can be governed better by a cabinet that features NDP participation. And that kind of validation - coming from the party which relies most on the assertion that the NDP can't and shouldn't be allowed near power - should offer a powerful counterargument the next time anybody tries to bring up the tired old messages.