There are those wo believe that the majority of Canadians are not at the left or right, but in the middle.

Let's say the librals merged with the NDP. Would the NDP ever be able to capture those in the middle. Or, would the Conservatives be the party that would capture that position?

There was a time that the Liberals were the middle party, and benefitted by frequent support from the NDP. I seem to recall that PET's ass was saved by the NDP support quite often, with a benefit to the NDP by the adoption of some left-leaning programs.

In an era of where economic concerns are a priority, the NDP may show poorly. If the priority were environmental issuues, possibly they would do better? A major shift in the past few elections was the so called "new Canadian" vote. The libreals seemed to loose this vote to the Conservatives in the last election?

Another good question is where will the Quebec votes go in the next election? Could there be a resurged Bloc type vote? Can Justin Trudeau (or another candidate) "shake off" the federal poor showing for the liberals? Was the NDP vote just an anomoly? There are far too many confounding factors in Quebec to figure that one out now?