Jeez!
As mathematicians, you make great musicians.
Uniting the left would make it into a two horse race and would certainly give folks a clear choice.
However, that's not to say that the Conservatives wouldn't get a lot of those votes too.
The real problem goes back to what I said, way up there, about Paul Martin moving too far to the left.
He gave up the centre.
The Conservatives took over and since then, there has been no party on the right.
The real solution would probably present itself in the collapse of the Liberal party.
The Liberals can't get the centre back and the NDP, which has always been the protest party, is too well established to be pushed aside.
Keep in mind too that despite what the pundits say, this is as close to a majority as any party can reasonably expect to be as long as one self interest group clings to 50 out of 75 seats.