Repetition for effect

Since Aaron Wherry has rightly connected the NDP's response to Lise St-Denis' floor-crossing to its efforts to engage constituents on other issues, I may as well offer a similar bit of reiteration. So here's what I had to say last time it was noted that the NDP was working on connecting voters to MPs whose choices they oppose:

(T)he NDP's work to get constituents involved in letting the Cons know what they think looks like a rather significant break from the top-down messaging we're accustomed to seeing from most parties...

Of course, the effect of the call is also to let the Cons know about an unhappy constituent while setting up a conversation between a rival party and an interested voter. But the NDP's choice to treat a direct message to the Cons as a plus in terms of influence rather than a minus in terms of keeping one's cards close to the vest looks to offer an important signal that the new Official Opposition is working on changing the game rather than playing by Harper's rules of message control and secrecy.

And needless to say, a chorus of Libs taking the opportunity to shriek "dirty tricks!" about the idea of voters being heard says much more about their continued expectation of never having to answer to the public than it does about the NDP's effort to change that operating assumption.

Update: Dr. Dawg has more.