The accompanying chart depicts voter intentions from 1978 to the present. Most of the data is from Environics; some more recent data is also from Angus Reid which publishes more frequent opinion polls at this time.

I have taken one liberty with the data and lumped together as one party from the start all Progressive Conservative, Social Credit (remember them?) and Reform/CA votes up to and including the formation of the Conservative Party of Canada. You'll find this data under the series name ReformATory.

Voter intentions 1978 to present

I've also added to more calculated series including a mythical Lib-Dem party and also a more telling Anything But Conservative line which tells a couple of stories, not the least of which is one which puts to lie Stephen Harper's assertion that losers can't form coalitions. The primary loser in our current electoral arrangement is the Canadian people who have voted Anything But Conservative by a majority for more than 20 years.

While some voters might abandon the creation of a merged Liberal-New Democratic arrangement, with ABC voter intentions running at 65% (and the delta between ABC and the Conservatives at a full 30 points!) it does seem very likely that such an arrangement might excite Canadians who might otherwise cast votes for the Bloc and Green parties.

Stephen Harper is quite correct to be blasting away at the opposition, for if they ever do get over backstabbing each other, they could be a formidable force, one which stands a chance at unifying Canadians in a way we've not seen in some time.