The reviews are in

Let's keep it positive to start the work week. Hassan Arif:

Vindicated. That is how many New Democrats must feel these days. While the party's poll numbers are stagnant - hovering in the mid-to-high teens - many of the party's ideas have gained new popularity.

With the collapse of the financial sector on Wall Street, social democratic ideas emphasizing government's role in helping the poor and the middle class and curbing corporate abuse have regained popularity.

During the 1990s, when deficit slashing and tax cutting were the dominant goals among policy-makers, the New Democrats were accused of being mired in the 1970s.

In 2009, it is conservatives who seem out of touch with the times.
...
Jack Layton's defence of the coalition formed in December with the Liberals showed that his party has moved beyond these earlier stances, and is ready to take a more central role in Parliament, working with other parties as a participant in government. It is unfortunate that the media were unfavourable to the Coalition and that Ignatieff's Liberals turned away from it. It had the potential to provide a progressive government that would take a more active role than the Conservatives have, in dealing with the economic crisis.

Jack Layton, after some false starts, seems to have found his voice. While the NDP still has a steep hill to climb if it is to improve its poll numbers, the party has nonetheless gained new energy in the battle of ideas.