Friends, Canadians, countrypersons, lend me your votes

CP:

NDP Leader Jack Layton was openly courting Liberal supporters on Monday, asking them to "lend" New Democrats their votes while the Grits go "into the repair shop."

MORE on this intriguing new strategy here and here. This isn't the You Can't Stop Harper, But I Can Keep Him In Check argument I predicted he would use to woo Liberal voters. He's not even talking about the Conservatives (meaning they're headed for a majority?). He's using the Liberals' death-spiral to appeal to Liberal voters: as if by voting NDP they'd be helping the Liberals -- staging an intervention, if you like, so the Grits can get the help they need:

"Lend us your vote while the party you've supported in the past cleans itself up. Vote for us just this once in this election" the NDP leader told Centennial College journalism students in Toronto Monday.

"Vote for us just this once, in this election, so there is a strong voice in the next Parliament that is standing up for the priorities progressive people believe in," he said. Layton added the Liberals will be "going into the repair shop for a while" to work out their ethical issues, and will thus be thinking about themselves and not voters' priorities.

Vote Dip, while the Liberals are in the shop. The NDP: your loaner party. Works for me. And you know what? It seems to be working for them.