New York Times - A Canadian party gains strength

When Canada’s government collapsed in March, setting in motion a federal election to be held Monday, the timing looked especially bad for the New Democrats, the perennial third-place party.

Its leader, Jack Layton, was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. Emergency hip surgery has left him hobbling around campaign stops with a cane. But to the surprise of most Canadians, including the New Democrats, all publicly available election polls in Canada over the past week have shown that the party leaping over the Liberals to become the second most popular party in Canada and quickly gaining strength.

Desmond Morton, a historian and the former director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada in Montreal said that the pivotal moment for the New Democrats came during a televised French language debate. “Layton emerged as a likeable guy with a street-smart accent, a member of a well-known Montreal family,” Professor Morton, a former adviser to the New Democrats, wrote in an e-mail.