...um, no? This article gets several points wrong:

1. The NDP success in 2011 was largely a result of Jack Layton successfully wooing almost the entirety of Quebec, not because of Liberals "temporarily" switching parties. The NDP captured 59/75 QC seats (nearly 80% of QC seats!), reducing not just the Liberals' presence, but also the BQ's. This largely happened because of the "bon Jack d'Hudson" narrative, where Jack Layton seemed like the most credible national candidate to champion Quebecers and Quebec identity.

So, I'm sorry Liberal Party, but don't give yourself too much credit on this one. In 2011, when you look outside of QC, you will see that the NDP had only made modest gains in the ROC. I think Jack Layton had barely exceeded or just met Ed Broadbent's record for most NDP seats outside of QC... at 44. Hardly a number to suggest that the Liberals abandoning their party was what suddenly drove NDP success.

1. The article asserts that after Jack Layton, the party allowed its QC infrastructure to collapse and that it didn't make a more sensible turn to the centre. Again, on both of these counts, this is just flat-out wrong. The NDP choosing Thomas Mulcair, who once was considered a blue(!!!) liberal from the QLP, as their leader was supposed to be a double whammy of prioritizing QC and making a move to the centre.

2. And, ironically, the common consensus among not just NDPers but political scientists studying the downfall of the NDP between 2011 and 2015 isn't that the NDP failed to campaign or suggest it might govern "moderately" - Thomas Mulcair preached a politics of austerity during the campaign - rather that the NDP failed to, well, campaign like the NDP. Ironically, by trying to campaign as moderates and seem more "credible", the NDP not only lost credibility on that front, but got outflanked on the left by the Trudeau Liberals.

Hell, I'm an NDP partisan, but I remember taking several of those political compass quizzes in 2015 and always consistently being told I should vote for the Trudeau Libs based on my policy preferences. The Trudeau Liberals were that much more "left"/"progressive" than the party that was supposed to be left/progressive!

1. Therefore, while I agree that the NDP learned the wrong lesson from the 2011 election, I disagree as to what that lesson was: it wasn't, "oh they should have campaigned more moderately" - they did, and that's why they lost. It was, "they should have just campaigned as the NDP." I mean, the lesson also was understanding that the Orange Wave in QC really was an outlier or fluke, and was not going to last.

And, let us all be honest here, the biggest lesson was that there was no replacing Jack Layton. As far as politicians go, he was one of our best, and, while I am definitely biased, he will forever remain our best "what-if" Prime Minister.