We had plenty of lively fallout from election night on CTV's Question Period this Sunday and even a rebuke of the media and pollsters from a Conservative insider.
Quebec political analyst Jean Lapierre reported on having been told by NDP Leader Jack Layton that there would be no talk of a merger between his party and the Liberals. Layton also told Lapierre he intends to make his MPs in Quebec take a pledge to defend the idea of Canadian federalism. He insists there will be no separatist in the ranks of his new crop of 58 MPs.
That was a message the New Democrats were at pains to get out. When Jane Taber interviewed Deputy Leader and Layton's Quebec Lieutenant Tom Mulcair, he insisted the party was not proposing any re-opening of the Constitution to meet the concerns of Quebecers.
He believes there are a number of changes that can be made without fooling with the Constitution which is an unpopular idea in English-speaking Canada.
John Tory used to be the leader of the Ontario Conservative Party, but nowadays he is a talk show host on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto. He told us he believes the 22 new Conservative MPs that won in Ontario will inevitably change the complexion of Stephen Harper's whole party.
He contends this new infusion of new MPs from Ontario could easily be Progressive Conservatives who will move the national party to the center by transforming the east-west balance of the caucus.
They have no interest, he says, in right-wing social conservative issues. If Harper embraces his takeover of this sophisticated Ontario politician, John Tory thinks Harper can easily hang on to national majorities in the next election.
The media and pollsters got a sound thrashing from one of the PM's closes advisers, Marjory LeBreton. She scolded us for missing the story of a Tory majority because we did not get out and "talk to the people."
However, she did concede that the weight of technology and the demands put on reporters does make it difficult to do so. This, most of us agree, is a problem for reporters in the digital age. The technology tail is wagging the editorial dog more often than it should.
The overall impression of this first program since the election was the degree to which the political landscape has been changed. There was no room on the show this week at least for any members of the new third party.
