The ex-NDP candidate in Elgin-Middlesex-London really didn't help his party. He decided to pull out of the race because he's affraid of a Conservatives majority and would thus prefer not having the NDP/LPC vote split. He backed up the Liberals.
It's kind of funny because this is exactly the kind of pre-election coalition scenario that I presented before. Of course, the difference being that there isn't an actual coalition and this move only put some heat back on the NDP and especially the LPC. It reopened the door for Harper to attack his opponents on this issue.
But more importantly, was the NDP candidate even right in doing that? I mean, could he actually prevent one CPC seat by giving his support to the Liberals? The current projections for this riding are:
CPC: 52%
LPC: 23%
NDP: 19%
Green: 6%
So even by adding all the votes from the NDP to the Liberals, we would still have a Conservatives win. If you ask me, this NDP candidate really made a useless move (and I'm not even talking about the fact that the party will probably replace him). He reopened the debate about the coalition, something the NDP and Liberals would rather have behind them at the moment, and he did that in a riding where his move can't change the outcome, even in the best scenario.
If any other NDP candidate is considering doing that, please read TooCloseToCall.ca before ;-)
