While I'm normally a fan of Greg's analysis, it's hard to disagree much more thoroughly with the view that the Cons should be left in power to give them more time to screw up.
Now, the Libs are already on the hook for giving the Cons more time to mess up in office - to the rightful disbelief of even some of their supporters. So it might not be that much more harmful for them to once again kick Canada down the road in hopes of a more favourable political picture.
But from the NDP's standpoint, the answer couldn't be much more clear. There's little reason to think that a second year in office would provide much more evidence of the Cons' unsuitability for government than their existing track record of arbitrary spending cuts, continued neglect of environmental and social issues, hyperpartisanship and internal repression - meaning that the potential for major damage to Harper's reputation would be limited to the outside prospect of a major scandal managing to emerge from the Cons' cloak of secrecy.
In contrast, the longer the Cons are in office, the more time they'll have for photo-ops and happy-sounding spending announcements...particularly on the environment where they're currently so rightly untrusted. And that process will almost certainly help to put a friendlier and less threatening face on Harper and company as time goes by, even if it doesn't make much substantive impact.
If the content of a confidence motion proves to be worthy of support, that's another question. But the more time the Cons have to make a mess of Canada, the worse off the country is going to be. And the prospect of PMS looking bad in the process doesn't make it worth waiting to see how much more damage is done.
(Edit: fixed wording.)
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