Jack can't win

Much reading of the tea leaves this morning after Thomas Muclair's victory for the NDP in the Outremont byelection: Are the Liberals finished as the federalist choice in Quebec? Did Michael Ignatieff's people sabotage Jocelyn Coulon's candidacy? Will Stephane Dion resign? The only matter that the talking heads in the national media appear to have resolved is that Muclair's victory is not a breakthrough for the NDP in Quebec.

This dismissal appears based on the facts that the New Democrats ran a popular candidate in a riding where they had a wedge issue (ie. the Afghanistan mission), and Jack Layton, who polls consistently well among party leaders in Quebec, visited Outremont several times. Why can't this successful formula be repeated elsewhere in Quebec where there are popular candidates and defining wedge issues? If you believe the Globe & Mail, the National Post, et al, it's because it's the NDP.

"The NDP can't win" is a political myth that hopefully will one day evaporate. If the myth that the Liberals are a progressive party of the left is demolished, then that day will come a lot sooner.