On hiring practices

It's probably not surprising to see the NDP taking a look at staffers from defeated Bloc and Lib MPs to ensure that constituency offices have at least some experienced hands (while also allowing for some new blood). But it's a bit more noteworthy that at least one Lib MP is actively supporting that process:

NDP Whip Yvon Godin (Acadie-Bathurst, N.B.) said he sees nothing wrong with the recruits from Quebec, many with no experience in politics, hiring assistants from either Bloc Québécois, or Liberal ranks.

"It could happen that you take one of the other team, they have experience, and they work together with some other people," Mr. Godin told The Hill Times. "It's always a possibility, but it's not up to us to make that decision, the Members that hire the person, they have to live with that person."

The prospect of the NDP recruiting experienced Bloc Québécois staff in the vast majority of ridings the party swept in the province, rural and Québec City ridings outside Montreal and even within the city, could add to the difficulties the Liberal party faces as it attempts to rebuild with a base of only 34 seats in the House of Commons.
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With the NDP in need of roughly 220 new political staffers to support its...Quebec caucus, Mr. Godin said the new MPs may turn to experienced Bloc Québécois staff, and, to an extent, Liberals looking for work in the Montreal area, as the NDP beefs up rapidly for the 41st Parliament. The first session could begin as early as May 30.
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One of the seven Liberals in Quebec who survived the May 2 vote massacre, Mount Royal MP Irwin Cotler, told The Hill Times the NDP should also reach out to Liberal assistants who will soon be out of work.

"I would like to think that they might look to some of the people from the Liberal party," Mr. Cotler said. "For example, Marlene Jennings [defeated by the NDP in Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Lachine] had a great executive assistant, why wouldn't the NDP say, 'Look, here's a good person, he could help out.'"

Mr. Cotler went further, saying he intends to contact Mr. Godin to make the case for the young Liberals now helping their former MPs pack up their offices, and offered his own assistance to the flood of New Democrats coming in.

Of course, it's natural that Cotler and other Libs would be concerned with making sure that the staffers they've come to know over the past few years would find another opportunity in the wake of a change in political winds. And Cotler deserves credit for making a public appeal to ease them into new positions.

But it surely can't escape notice that the recruitment of staffers from other parties may have a couple of other consequences: not only will they end up contributing their talents to the NDP's efforts leading up to the next federal election, but their arrival will also figure to build links between the parts of federal parties which have been under different umbrellas in the past. And both of those results would figure to strengthen the NDP's hand as it builds its Quebec presence over the next four years.