While I have been critical of Jack Layton's unwillingness to stand up to corruption and his lack of honesty, it is undeniable that Layton at least has some principles: he may give up on accountable government, but at least he walks away with a prize that is good for progressives: more spending on left-wing causes. Without Jack Layton, the progressives would have got a corporate tax cut instead.

If your values align best with those of the N.D.P., the greatest disservice you can do to yourself is to vote for Paul Martin. It is giving up the fight, settling for the bad instead of challenging the status quo by trying to build an alternate political future. Every vote for Paul Martin's Liberals is a weakening of the progressive cause, and frankly, the perpetuating the lack of a clear clash of political approaches in Canada.

Ed Broadbent:

The Liberal Party thinks about itself more than working people. Its conduct in office has not been ethical. Its contempt for Parliament is rivaled only by its manipulation of voters.

Chantal Hebert:

Is the New Democratic Party a flag of convenience to be waved only when nothing stands in the way of a Liberal parade? In the dying days of the campaign, it certainly seems that way.

…

Is the Canadian left really so weak that it needs to hide in the tattered skirts of a beleaguered Liberal party at the first hint of a right-wing wind? Those of its members who so willingly take a hand in the Liberal salvage operation can't be doing it in the expectation that the beneficiaries of progressive favours will be grateful. Not unless they ignore recent history.

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When the Canadian left does its post-election soul-searching, it should ponder whether some of its leading voices allowed their fears to make them lose sight of an unprecedented opportunity to advance their values.