Bernie would surely know that if he were to run for the Liberal nomination, he would face expulsion from the BC NDP. It'd be the Buzz Hargrove affair all over again.

I know there are some BC New Democrats who would like to see a separation of the Party's federal and provincial wings. However, there's no chance of that happening. Most NDP members regard a party affiliation to be more than a mere flag of convenience.

I am a former card carrying New Democrat, and now a federal Liberal. I am still supportive of the BC NDP and would like to get involved in the organization. Alas, the dogmatic mindset of the party brass would turn me away because I do not support Jack Layton.

A separation of the BC NDP and the federal NDP is a must. With the BC Liberals trying to move to the centre, it is frankly the only chance the BC NDP has of taking government.

I agree. It would be good for the Federal NDP if it were separate from the provincial party. They'd have to work to keep ordinary New Dems from defecting from the Federal Party -- but not to the Liberals but the Conservatives!!! They'd have to make some real policy adjustments to compensate. Like getting tough on terrorists. And crime. And welfare fraud. And Street Racers. And pot dealers.

Bernie would be terrific, at least he doesn't share a brain with Mark Marissen:)

Bernie as fed lib candidate?

You have GOT to be kidding.

Someone make the pain go away.

Looking back, it may be that Bernie Simpson left the NDP because of his clashes with Svend Robinson, but he left the party a long time ago. Kind of like Bob Rae, who also couldn't stomach Svend. And let's remember that Bernie was an active bagman for the abortive John Manley Leadership Drive after Chretien quit, so he really hasn't shown a surplus of political acumen in his new party.

If Bernie Simpson does run for the Liberals in Vancouver Kingsway, I hope the NDP runs a strong visible minority candidate there, one with a business, engineering or construction background who supports unapologetically the Mike Harcourt-Glen Clark vision of twinning the Port Mann Bridge and widening the Trans Canada Hwy to eight lanes. On the odd chance that the federal election comes before Harper's date of October 2009, and before the provincial election in May of that year, there will be a clear benefit to the BC NDP when that candidate then flatten's Simpson to a thickness measurable only by a micrometer. It will be a crystal clear warning shot across the bows of David Chudnovsky and Shane Simpson. Either clean up your act on the Port Mann/Hwy 1 issue or face the consequences.

As for the suggestion that the NDP would be better off if its federal and provincial wings were separated, ... just look what that's done for the Liberals in BC! It gives them a never-ending game of plausible deniability to play around with, one day telling one group they're together, the next day telling a different group they're separate, and by the third day claiming that the first two messages are now inoperative and that no promise expressed or implied was ever made, and that if you don't like it, you can get a lawyer! Is that really what we want?

"A separation of the BC NDP and the federal NDP is a must."

That'll never happen. The provincial Liberals cut off constitutional ties with the federal Liberals in 1992, but it wasn't until after Gordon Campbell's disasterous 1996 campaign when the provincial Liberals were run by those without ties to the federal Liberals.

Even now the provincial Liberal Party is run by
control freaks who don't want to lose their power.

The provincial Liberals were better off being
run by those who were in the federal Party as
members, such as May Brown, Jagit Dhatt, Sonia Sanguinetti, Gurdev Dhillon, George Taylor, rather than the group of incompetents that are running the party now. At least members in that group knew how to run a volunteer based party compared to the group that runs the party now.

The NDP should never make that same mistake.

Learn from the errors of the BC Liberal Party.