Mulcair rejects strategic co-operation with Liberals to engineer Tory defeat [View all]

Source: The Globe and Mail

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is rejecting any last-minute electoral co-operation with the Liberals that would engineer a Conservative defeat, saying his party still has a chance to form government when the votes are counted on election day.

A group calling itself Just The Facts Canada ran a full-page ad in The Globe and Mail on Tuesday urging Mr. Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to cede ridings to each other in constituencies where public opinion surveys suggest they have little chance of winning and vote-splitting could pave the way for a Conservative victory. It is just one of several proposals for strategic voting being promoted by groups that aim to defeat Stephen Harper.

... To those who would suggest pre-election co-operation with Mr. Trudeau, he said: “I will say to those people they should go back to the 2011 polls – the same polls that were showing that the NDP was in fourth place in Quebec a week out from the election campaign.”

... Despite surveys that suggest his party has dropped to third place – lagging 10 percentage points behind the front-running Liberals – Mr. Mulcair is still aggressively campaigning for the win and is primarily going to places where his party hopes to take seats from the Conservatives.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/mulcair-rejects-last-minute-deal-with-liberals-to-defeat-conservatives/article26781579/