the big difference is the redrawn ridings. it is arguably the case that the cities were split up to harm the ndp in the first place; it certainly raised some eyebrows. even at 2011 numbers, the ndp would be expected to pick up most of those new urban seats in saskatoon and regina, with the one exception being rock-steady ralph. nobody's ever beating ralph. well, jesus, maybe - but the conservatives are not that bold. yet....

ralph's seat will probably eventually go to the ndp, too.

www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-grenier-prairies-sep19-1.3234750

Rush 2112
nobody causes harm to the NDP, They open their mouth and speak

Jessica Murray
well, the accusations of gerrymandering are kind of hard to ignore, if you look at the riding splits.

both cities were sliced into four parts in such a way that the rural parts of the riding would determine the winner with essentially no ambiguity.

had that not occurred, saskatoon and regina would have been sending ndp mps to ottawa the whole time.

HardRightByte
The cons didn't do this though, the Liberals did because at the time they figured the NDP were a bigger threat to them than the Reform Party.

Jessica Murray
this is accurate. for all the talk of "western alienation", it suited the liberals just fine so long as they could keep it contained, and the more the westerners cried and yelled like the entitled, spoiled children we've learned they are, and it was always clear that they are, the more they kept themselves hemmed in. it makes me angry whenever i see somebody apologize for the nep.

and, the truth is that this calculus was absolutely correct. nobody should apologize for being right. the liberals did not lose power due to a surge in conservative voters. they lost power because layton started bleeding them on their left, most notably in ontario. and, for them to win again, they need to beat the ndp, not the conservatives. the poll corrections over the last week have upheld what i've been saying for years: you can't push the conservatives under 30 for any length of time. you have to fight over the other 70% to form a government.

they seemed to get it then, what's more head-scratching is why they forgot it for so long.