Why do some conservatives like the NDP?

[mileslunn]

Yes primarily for two reasons. One is self-interest though.

1. Tory support fluctuates between 30 to 40 percent so the better the NDP does the better their chances at winning since any NDP votes gained will likely come at the expense of the Liberals not Tories, thus vote splitting.

2. Even if they disagree with the NDP, most see them as a principled party whereas they see the Liberals as opportunists with no principles and just do whatever they think will win instead of sticking to their principles like the NDP do.

3. Because the NDP loses most of the time I find NDP supporters aren't as hostile to Tories, they just disagree with them whereas a lot of Liberal supporters truly hate Tories and see them as bad people so a lot of Tories can get along with NDP supporters at a personal level whereas the hatred between the Liberals and Tories goes beyond political and is also personal too as much like the US many believe on both sides those supporting the other are truly bad people.

Nonetheless attitudes are somewhat regionalized too.

Atlantic Canada: Since most people are centrists (most Tories here are Red Tories and NDP third way types) there is much less partisan animosity than elsewhere in the country.

Quebec: They don't follow the traditional left-right politics and so not sure what attitudes are there.

Ontario: What I said above applies there most as the NDP can win enough to votes to have impact, but asides from 1990 provincially and never federally, they never win outright so the better the NDP does in Ontario, the better the Tories usually do as the votes they gain generally only hurt the Liberals.

Manitoba/Saskatchewan: Since the NDP is the main opposition provincially I think you will find Tories are more likely to dislike both equally

Alberta: A few years ago what I said was true, but today I think the right hates both with a passion.  The amount of hatred towards both Notley and Trudeau in Alberta is very strong.  Likewise since more lean right than left in Alberta usually progressives coalesce behind one party so most progressives vote NDP provincially and Liberal federally.

British Columbia: Depends on what type of Tories.  The hard right ones as mentioned above, but the moderate right tend to hate the NDP more as the NDP has won provincially multiple times and the BC Liberals who are their main opponents are a coalition of both Liberals and Conservatives thus since they work together provincially they don't tend to dislike the Liberals as much.  Within the Liberals federally, some still hate the Tories as the progressive federal Liberals generally vote NDP provincially, it is only the Blue Liberals who go BC Liberals and in fact many of them hate the BC Liberals more as they consider them being dishonest in their name.