Dear Jack,
Haven't written you in quite some time now - As you know I sent Michael Ignatieff a bit of a rocket a few days ago. Reaction was strong from all sides of the aisle. 1) It's hard to find any rational Canadians who want this country to have it's fourth election in six years.
It's hard to find any who have any idea of what Michael Ignatieff would do differently from the previous PM. It's hard to see this comfortable Canadian of convenience really laying a whoopin' on the Harper team in the next election. I mean Ignatieff is a lot of things. But warrior ain't one of them. In the one real contest that he was in, he got beaten by Stephane Dion, a guy who was less comfortable with the English language than Yaser Arafat. As you know Jack, the Liberals had to give Ignatieff a Room Service Convention in Vancouver where his only competitor would be an empty auditorium. So they gave him one of the smallest rooms ever for a political convention and filled it sufficiently to make it look like Liberals were crazy for the new guy. But for many mainstream Liberals the only thing that Ignatieff represents isn't virtue or character or vision. As Margaret Wente wrote based on her finely tuned radar, always affirmed if not entirely lubricated by Latte Land of GTA - Toronto's Beeches - Michael Ignatieff is acceptable to Liberals there, not because he is the second coming of Trudeau or any kind of warrior king. They see him as Stephane Dion without the accent, which is a relatively polite way of saying there ain't much spine in that jelly fish, or he's all hat and no cattle or as we would have said in our old anatomy class at McGill, Iggy is one male body part in search of two others.
But Jack, I am not writing you this to bury the Liberal Cesar, but rather to praise your political survival skills. You have over the years always found a way to invent and reinvent and always on the far left of the Canadian spectrum. That isn't all that easy in a country that cleaves to the middle. The Canadian pendulum never tends to swing too far one way or the other. And so it's always challenging for you not to get crushed in a part of the world which would generally rather vote Liberal than NDP. In your riding, I don't have to tell you how competitive it can be. It is not safe NDP country. Not poor enough. Not Northern enough. Not unionized up enough. When Dennis Mills, the maverick Liberal, had that riding there were those of us who thought he was unbeatable. There were times you thought based on your own experience, that he was unbeatable. But after a couple of kicks at the can you managed to do it. And you are to be congratulated for that. And as you did then and I do now retrospectively. You are a warrior. Like any good warrior you know where the biggest battles are and you are in one right now. You are at a fork in your political road where you have two choices. You can vote with or against the government of the day. If you vote with them, you will be seen as the white knight of Canadian politics, riding to the rescue of a country that doesn't want to be taken hostage by another 300 million dollar election campaign. And by the way Jack, as you know I am originally from the Garment district of Montreal. As Blue Collar as it gets and you know I do my math a little differently, having been raised by people who survived by their wits and their sweat. They were always one paycheck away from abject poverty and so they would understand that this election isn't a three hundred million dollar election. It's a three hundred million dollar down payment on the next election. If it doesn't result in a majority, it will result in yet another election next year or within eighteen months from now. So what we are into right now is the possibility of six hundred million dollar spent on the Visiting Professors ego trip. In the three room walk up we lived in where dad hunched over the sewing machine, made ninety cents an hour and mom made half a cent per neck tie, if the layoff came and at least one year it would for one of them, the soup would get watered down and another one of the rooms would get rented out for three bucks a week and our family would all sleep in the same room if we had to. Paychecks had consequences. Elections have consequences. Don't be telling me Jack that there is not enough going for the folks who are burning through their milk money and then pour six hundred million of milk down the rat hole so that the Visiting professor gets a chance to throw a few softballs at the Ex and hope to win a stuffed Beaver for his Wife.
If I were you Jack, I would find a way to support the government. Your troops become very vulnerable almost everywhere in the country, except for Manitoba and BC. I would not be surprised to see even your own seat in Toronto Danforth and your wife's seat just up the road, go into play. The Liberals are going to be zealously focusing on the GTA and the media message will be Stop Harper from getting a Majority. Don't waste your vote on third parties. A vote for the NDP is a vote for the Tories. You know the Liberal play book. Our friends wrote it years ago...They use the same old-warmed over porridge. I think the old porridge ladled up by the visiting professor could do two things:
a) Juice Liberal turnout which was severely depressed last time with Dion as leader, and;
b) Take away 5 - 10 percent of the NDP vote.
Jack, you overachieved last time because of DION, who was a great gift to your team. Jack, I know you can be ideological all too often. In your perfect world, even the neighborhood road hockey league would be unionized. But if your survival instinct kicks in this week, you will find a way to vote for the Ways and Means in order to get many Canadians to say, "Maybe that Jack Layton isn't as crazy and reckless as I thought he was. Maybe the NDP is the conscience of parliament." Blah blah blah. Jack you have a golden opportunity to be a hero, by simply saying Canadians have told you they don't want an election, and you are responding to the people's will. If you vote with the government it will be the big play of the season. Jack, you love being the centre of attention, being relevant and being seen as a legitimate alternative to the Tories. This is your shot. If you vote against them, it could mean that in a few weeks the NDP wolves will treat you like a freshly killed deer. You don't want to morph from a two buck pol to a three point buck. It ain't pretty Jack. You don't want your head hung over Michael Ignatieff's fireplace at Stornaway. There's a better way Jack. And you know which way that is. You were looking for the PM to throw you a bone. Today he did. You can take that EI bone and gum it right down to the marrow. Make it look like you are taking one for the team. But do it for yourself Jack and Olivia and all the people who do indeed believe in you. You're a lot of things Jack Layton. But you're not an Idiot when it comes to self-preservation.
I know that you know there is only one smart choice and this week you are going to get the chance to make it. Good luck, Jack.
I'm Charles Adler and this is the Corus Radio Network.
