NDP "needs to be watched": "But the real story is in more prosaic revivals of NDP spirit at the riding level.
Nanaimo-Cowichan, on Vancouver Island, is a good example. The riding used to be an NDP stronghold. (Tommy Douglas represented an earlier version of it.) But in 1993, Nanaimo-Cowichan was one of a swath of Western ridings that leapfrogged from the NDP to Reform (from one form of populist protest to another). By 2000, the NDP had sunk to a very poor third place in the riding.
But Jean Crowder, a popular local councillor, has already secured the NDP nomination, and is working the riding hard. If Mr. Layton is to stage a comeback for his party, the NDP will need to get voters in this and similar 'leapfrog ridings' to leap back."