Things may be even worse for the Liberals than I thought

Lorne Gunter looks at the "bright side":

NOW, a Toronto arts, style and opinion magazine, has done a strategic-voting analysis of all 308 ridings in the country. It estimates that if anti-Tory voters pooled their votes behind the one candidate in each riding most capable of knocking off the Tory candidate, the outcome would be "a Liberal minority with the NDP getting 46 seats and the Greens two."

The remarkable thing about this fantasy result is that it is the best NOW could come up even though it controlled all the variables. A Liberal minority held in place by a strong NDP caucus is possible only if anti-Tories do the right strategic thing in every riding, which is not going to happen. In effect, it is a tacit admission that the Tories are going to win, even if it is not, directly, a concession that the Tories are going to win a majority.

It's become so bad for the Liberals that polls Thursday put them in fourth place in B.C. behind both the NDP and, for the first time, the Green party. All eight of the incumbent Liberals in B.C. are in real danger of losing their seats and the party faces the possibility of being wiped out provincewide.

If even NOW can only conjure up a Liberal minority with total commitment to strategic voting on the left, then the Liberals are certainly going to spend a few more years in the wilderness.

Update: Iggy begs you to save Canada by voting Liberal:

The New Democrats and Green Party have no chance of forming government and the only way to stop the Conservatives is to vote Liberal, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff says.

In a blunt appeal to shore up sagging support, Ignatieff today painted this election as a choice between just two parties. And he made a calculated pitch to Green and NDP supporters.

"Two weeks to go and the choices are narrowing . . . and there are only two parties that can actually form a government and run this country. Conservative or Liberal," he said.

"If you want childcare, if you want real action on the environment, if you want justice for aboriginal Canadians, if you want a government that partners with municipalities and provinces instead of attacking them, you got to vote Liberal," he said.

"If you don’t vote Liberal, Canada will go into a major economic crisis," said Ignatieff, who joined with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion at a morning campaign stop in Stoney Creek.

His appeal comes as a new Toronto Star/Angus Reid poll put the Liberals at 21 per cent, tied with the NDP, with the Green Party at 7 per cent.

If you don't vote Liberal, it'll be chaos: "this [country] is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions."
"What do you mean, 'biblical'?"
"What he means is Old Testament . . . real wrath of God type stuff."
"Exactly."
"Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!"
"[Four] years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes . . ."
"The dead rising from the grave!"
"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together . . . mass hysteria!"

Appropriate apologies to Messrs. Aykroyd and Ramis.

Update the second: Of course, JACK! would prefer that you transferred your left-leaning vote to the NDP, to complete the Liberal eclipse:

In Vancouver today, buoyed by encouraging poll numbers and bolstered by the third large crowd of his current British Columbia swing, NDP Leader Jack Layton today said it’s now a two-man race.

"Make no mistake, my friends, it’s New Democrats who are setting the agenda in this campaign," Layton told about 600 cheering supporters at the historic Commodore Ballroom.

"The choice is Jack Layton or (Conservative Prime Minister) Stephen Harper. Period," he said in a venue that has hosted music legends like Miles Davis, James Brown, The Clash, and U2.

"Here in B.C., the choice is clear - if you want to stop Harper, only New Democrats can do it."

Never once mentioning Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, whose party is in deep trouble on the west coast, Layton instead hammered Harper.