Don't do it!

That's Rex Murphy's advice to Libs and Dippers thinking about merging:

When I read of Jean Chrétien, the all-time Rocky Balboa of the Liberal party, its most successful leader in eons, openly advocating a merger with the NDP, I was deep in Bierce territory.

When ... at the height of his fortunes ... in no way would “Rocky” have wasted a second’s breath that the great Liberal party he led had need of the NDP.

... what real enthusiasm exists for any of this talk of merger comes from people whose digestion is impaired at the very thought of a Harper majority government. Distaste over Harper’s victory is stronger than any perceived virtue in the idea of a merger itself.

... The Liberals work harder and better when shadowed by the NDP; they lose some of their insufferable self-satisfaction. 

... 10 years back ... any voice in [Chretien's] caucus that suggested the Liberals should merge with the NDP .... would have been stilled, its possessor exiled and tossed on some ice-floe ....