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Layton's death could turn Canadian politics into a two-party system

Editor: Re: Raeside cartoon, Aug.

Editor:

Re: Raeside cartoon, Aug. 24

With Jack Layton's sadly premature departure from Canada's political stage, the Harper Conservatives are facing the democracy vacuum of two (and if you include the totally decimated Bloc) of three essentially leaderless opposition parties.

Both the Liberal and the NDP parties will have to be undergoing leadership contests in the not-too-distant future.

With the NDP having lost its political soul and the Liberals having been reduced to "also-rans," both parties will inevitably have to recognize the one central issue in their respective leadership contests; that separately their chances of defeating the Conservatives are remote.

The oft-debated and oft-rejected possibility of a merger between the Liberals and the NDP will be back on the table.

Jack Layton's ultimate legacy may well turn out to be Canada's political realignment to a two-party system with a clarity of political choice for the electorate.

E.W. Bopp