By Gerry Nicholls
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
NDP leader Jack Layton must be a little envious of Venezuela's socialist boss Hugo Chavez.
Chavez, after all, is currently the hip and happening star of the world's radical, chic left-wing crowd.
That status became official, by the way, when American actor and left-wing activist Sean Penn recently paid the South American leader a visit.
When Hollywood celebrities start hanging around a leader, it's the official stamp of "politically trendy" approval.
Sorry Castro, your Cuban-style retro-1950s Stalinism is out. Hugo Chavez is in.
AND NO WONDER
Chavez -- undaunted by socialism's unbroken record of failure -- is zealously and unabashedly taking the teachings of Marx and Lenin out of the university classrooms and putting them into practice.
In fact, he has hammered Venezuela's private sector with wide-scale property expropriations, nationalizations, price fixing and currency controls. (Kind of sounds like Canada in the 1970s.)
Meanwhile, while Chavez boasts about "breaking the chains of the old exploitive capitalist system," what is Jack Layton doing here in Canada for the socialist cause?
Well he is pushing hard to regulate bank fees for ATMs.
Not all that exciting is it?
Hardly the kind of revolutionary action needed to mobilize the proletariat, let alone get you invited to posh Hollywood parties.
MAKEOVER
So who knows, maybe in an attempt to boost his socialist cachet, Layton will undergo a left wing makeover. Maybe he will even adopt the Chavez model as NDP policy.
Just imagine if he did that.
And further imagine what would happen if a Chavez-inspired Layton ever got himself elected Prime Minister. (OK, I know Layton becoming Prime Minister is about as likely as Michael Vick starring in the next Lassie movie, but work with me here.)
What would a Chavez-style revolution mean for Canada?
Well, for one thing, Layton might adopt Chavez's "progressive, left wing" stance regarding the media. And Chavez's "progressive left wing stance" was to recently shut down an independent TV station that dared to criticize him and replace it with what he called "socialist television."
But come to think to think of it, that won't work here. Canada already has "socialist television." It's called the CBC.
OK so maybe a Prime Minister Layton would adopt another Chavez policy which was to force the Venezuelan armed forces to adopt the motto "Fatherland, socialism or death."
Catchy, isn't it?
But on second thought, I am pretty sure that slogan is already taken. Isn't it inscribed on the coat of arms of the Supreme Court of Canada? So that's out.
Well there is one other Chavez policy a Prime Minister Layton could possibly emulate. Chavez recently announced sweeping changes to the country's constitution that would give him dictatorial powers.
Some observers have called this move undemocratic; Chavez, however, calls it a "transfer of power to the people."
OOPS
Maybe a Prime Minister Layton could arrange for a similar "transfer." Oops, I forgot. In Canada prime ministers already have close to dictatorial powers.
So Layton clearly has a problem when it comes to winning the adulation of the Sean Penns of the world.
Simply put, he can't really trigger a socialist revolution in this country.
Why? Because somebody has already beaten him to it.
Gerry Nicholls is a Toronto writer and former vice president of the National Citizens Coalition. Gerry can be reached at Gerry_nicholls@hotmail.com
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