By arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
The NDP concluded their convention in Montreal last Sunday with the leadership of Jack Layton having been given the support of 92% of the delegates. Layton, whose ego is oversized at the best of times, has now decided that there will be none of this third party nonsense for him any more; he's going to be the next prime minister of Canada. Said Jack, "Paul Martin and the Liberals are gone. My friends, the time is coming for Stephen Harper to go, too".
Layton's arrogance has surpassed even that of the mighty Liberals who have held the reins of power so much since Confederation that they at least have the right to be arrogant. and of course, it is easy for Layton to ignore the leaderless Liberals who are meandering through the longest official leadership race in memory to come up with the scenario that the next election will be Jack vs. Steve.
a nasty little habit that Jack and some of his cohorts have is that they actually purport to speak for all Canadians. It is not uncommon for Layton to say that "Canadians want this" or "Canadians think that". If Canadians really wanted what Layton says they want, like the immediate withdrawal of Canadian troops from afghanistan, you would expect that the NDP's poll numbers would at least get out of the teens. as it is, the percentage of people who say that they will vote for the NDP more closely approximates the percentage of people who think that Elvis is still alive than they do those who support the Liberals or the Conservatives.
One illustration of how Layton's support of his policy of cutting and running in afghanistan is resonating with Canadians can be seen in a recent Ipsos-Reid poll. Conducted after the weekend that saw 5 Canadians soldiers die in combat while Jack continued his "support our troops by bringing them home" rant, the poll showed that 51% of respondents supported the afghanistan mission. That was an increase of 4% from a similar question asked last July when both Layton and his friends the Taliban were a lot quieter.
Similarly, a poll taken last month following the latest war in the Middle East showed that only 19% of Canadians blamed Israel for what transpired. This contrasts with the resolution passed at the NDP convention that not only characterized Israel's response to Hezobollah's kidnapping and killing of its soldiers as "drastically disproportionate" but described the terrorist group in glowing terms as "a recognized political party with democratically elected members in Lebanon's cabinet and Parliament".
There are many people in Canada who either oppose the mission in afghanistan or are simply unsure of whether or not we should be there. There is certainly room for a fuller debate on the issue as some critics of Canada's participation in the war have argued for. But Layton, by wanting to talk to the Taliban, praising Hezbollah for being democratic and his obsession with George W. Bush, is simply preaching to the converted. He and his party are a long way from ever getting the numbers needed to form the government.
Instead of dreaming of moving into 24 Sussex with the lovely Olivia, Jack would do better to keep his eye on the Green Party. The Greens, now led by the high profile former executive director of the Sierra Club, Elizabeth May, not only have a strong environmental policy but their foreign policy proposals are not much different from that of the NDP. If May can manage to avoid the silly "talk to the Taliban" rhetoric that Jack has been spouting recently, the Green Party will be in a good position to take votes away from the NDP.
Jack Layton may very well be ready to govern. But Canadians are a long way away from electing an NDP government.
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