Cornwall ON – What an interesting moment of Canadian History Jack Layton is filling at the moment.
I like Jack. I interviewed him one on one and he was way more fun than listening to many of his interviews and this last year he’s battled health woes and Stephen Harper.
But…..and this is a big but….it was Jack Layton that inflicted Stephen Harper on Canada by pulling down the Martin government.
I love how Conservatives complain about Liberals being thieves and corrupt….but if they were, which I’m not suggesting, they must’ve been really good as the government was running surpluses which compared to where we are now ……
So now Canadians and most of the opposition seem to be ready to go to the voters. I know some MP’s feel that if they can last until 2012 they’ll get their pension benefits, but surely Canada must come first?
Does anyone really expect our PM giving enough to Mr. Layton to earn his support? Could Jack Layton continue to support a government that goes against everything the NDP stand for? (And most Canadians?)
So who has the most to benefit from right now by calling an early election? The finger points straight at Mr. Harper as scandal after scandal rocks his support with the minority of Canadians that voted for him. The realities of the economy are not working in his favor either and with things looking to get darker the sooner an election happens the better his chances of retaining power.
After Bev Oda and the contempt of Parliament charges a majority doesn’t seem to be in the cards and many have suggested that if Mr. Harper cannot pull in a majority his days as leader of the Conservatives are very much numbered.
Mr. Ignatieff is in a great spot. Victim of very weak attack ads, albeit ones that millions of dollars are being spent on, his quiet demeanor and lack of punch back seem to be working in his favor. He also has very low expectations with many feeling the party would jettison him before an election. The man simply doesn’t have much to lose and the current clime doesn’t look like the Grits would lose too many seats if any. In other words, low risk, big gain potential.
While the Liberals are saying they want an election now the longer time ticks on the better it looks for them as a party which brings us
to the NDP.
With a slim to none chance for the NDP to form a government and labour slowly eroding to the Liberals provincially and to a lesser degree Federally the NDP seem to be floating in a sea looking for a new direction.
This most likely be Mr. Layton’s last election no matter what.
With Franco-Irish Thomas Mulcair in the wings patiently waiting to take his turn at leadership Mr. Layton wants to make the most of his legacy at this point. Speaking of Mr. Mulcair kudos to him for not pulling a Paul Martin and waiting his turn to take command. Apparently Mr. Mulcair read “that Scottish play” while in school.
However even if he does retain his seat and fight off popular Former Liberal MP Martin Cauchon to lead the NDP where does he lead them to? Have the NDP lost their raison d’etre? Would it not serve both them and the Liberals to unite the Centre/Left?
That leaves us with the Green Party where leader Elizabeth May is primed to gain a seat for the party for the first time in Canada’s history. There’s even a chance of gaining 1 or 2 more seats.
Again, this all comes down to Mr. Layton. It looks like it’s going to be his call to make? So my fellow Canadians, if you’re Jack Layton what do you decide? Please vote in our poll and you can post your comments below.
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I pay attention and watch the bills being passed in parliament and Jack Layton and his NDP have supported everything I am concerned about. Example was the bill trying to protect Ontario farmer’s crops and stopping Monsanto seed that has been germinating into their fields. The NDP and the Green party were the only ones who cared about this. If Monsanto continues in Canada, our economy is at risk and so are our farmers.
The center and center-left parties should have merged a few years ago. The three main parties all seem to have shifted to the right. The Progressive Conservatives were swallowed up by the Reformers, and probably the only honest thing that the new party has done is remove “Progressive” from their name. The Liberals under Chretien and Martin moved sharply to the right. They balanced the books on the backs of the unemployed, by raiding billions of dollars of EI payments, killing the National Housing Program, and things like that. The very rich never had to make any sacrifices under their rule. The NDP seems to have forgotten what they originally stood for. They never talk about a guaranteed annual income, workers rights and living wages, etc. They have become what the Liberals used to be. If the two parties merged, I think two good things would result. The Liberals would become less conservative, and the non-Conservative vote wouldn’t be split.
I am all for supporting local farmers and helping farmers. I am concerned about the costs of food if farmers grow stronger. I have seen crops in Saskatchewan and Alberta decimated in order to receive insurance monies rather then turn the crop. Not the tiny fields like we have here in Ontario but real farms.
I fear if farms grew here and gained a large corner of the tax base like everything else the costs would sore. It is guilt by association with the NDP
The NDP would have to first learn to play with corporations instead of unions before they do anything more then split votes. As most of us know Unions is the mainstay behind what fuels the NDP.
Juts take a look at Saskatchewan; they had one of the worst growth records with Calvert and Romanow both of the NDP party. Now they have Wall and some economic growth. Here we had Rae and he all but decimated the province. Add to his blunders the hidden fees and surcharges rather then using the term tax increase.
The NDP is nothig more then a socialist party hidden behind the name Democratic.
I mean how can you carry the name Democratic Party yet support unions and union mentality where in exists things like a closed shop. A closed shop is a work environment where you must be a union member or you cannot work.
Kind of contradictory to the term Democracy I would think
I’m sorry Smee but I don’t see the connection of large farms and the NDP. Are you saying owners of large farms vote NDP? Here in Ontario, at least our south eastern area, it has been my observation that farmers tend to vote conservative. On one hand you denigrate the size of farms in Ontario and then you turn around and criticize the owners of large farms. So what’s your point…….farms bad, NDP bad??
“The center and center-left parties should have merged a few years ago. The three main parties all seem to have shifted to the right. The Progressive Conservatives were swallowed up by the Reformers, and probably the only honest thing that the new party has done is remove “Progressive” from their name. The Liberals under Chretien and Martin moved sharply to the right. They balanced the books on the backs of the unemployed, by raiding billions of dollars of EI payments, killing the National Housing Program, and things like that. The very rich never had to make any sacrifices under their rule. The NDP seems to have forgotten what they originally stood for. They never talk about a guaranteed annual income, workers rights and living wages, etc. They have become what the Liberals used to be. If the two parties merged, I think two good things would result. The Liberals would become less conservative, and the non-Conservative vote wouldn’t be split.”
That’s terrible idea. At the grassroots level, people involved in the NDP tend to have very different political convictions and different priorities than those involved in the Liberal Party. All you’d get if you merge the two parties is an even less ideologically coherent version of the current Liberal power cult.
Instead, it would be better to upgrade Canada’s electoral system to one that allows for proportional representation and to decentralize power away from the Prime Minister and the PMO (it’s ludicrous that the Prime Minister is currently able to appoint the entire upper house of Parliament, appoint the people who run our dozens of crown corporations, stop Omar Khadr from returning to Canada in spite of a Parliamentary vote calling for it, and appoint a boatload of senior civil servants and the entire PMO and PCO. Harper’s appointing lunatics from far-right American groups like Focus on the Family. He might as well be giving patronage appointments to Ahmadinejad or a bunch of Saudi princes.).
The Tories don’t want the perpetual coalition governments, because they know they will usually be left out, barring an election like 1984 where they actually win more than half of the popular vote. With the current gang of fundamentalist Reform freaks running the party, they’ll never even break 40. And with a careless, out-of-touch crook like Maxime Bernier waiting in the wings, the more libertarian faction won’t do any better at the polls/
The Liberals, for their part, don’t want to have to share power with the Greens or the NDP unless it’s within the same tent (where it’s easier to hide all of their dirty pool). The more left-leaning parties and the BQ would make it too difficult for the Liberals to give their friends drips from the trough, which seems to be their raison d’etre when they hold power alone. Moreover, without their being able to rely on tactical anti-Tory votes (as nobody would have to worry about a party few people like sneaking into power through vote splitting under a system like Germany’s or Scotland’s…There will be no more Bob Raes and Margaret Thatchers.), it’s very plausible that the Liberals could unravel all together and fall to 4th or 5th place in the polls, bleeding support to the NDP, the Greens, and the Tories (though this shedding all of these marginal victors would give the Liberal Party a far more coherent ideology).
I agree CommieCowboy, that some form of proportional representation is long past due. That ain’t gonna happen under either the Libs or Cons for obvious reasons. In the meantime, the center and left have to either merge or form a coalition in order to save us from the Reformatories.
Michael Ignatieff has promised Quebec City their arena if the Liberals are elected federally. Hows that for oneupmanship? I wonder how that sits with Canadian voters?
@Stan. That’s about the most bone-headed thing that Iggy could have come up with. For sure, a vote killer in the ROC.
Reg
I am not speaking strictly in Ontario.
My point being if farmers join the NDP train they have no chance of reaching their goals.
Stay Conservative.
If any province shows stability and growth from being conservative it is Alberta. Do not use Big Oil as an excuse; Ontario has its industry as well. In Saskatchewan they voted for Brad Wall, a member of the Saskatchewan Party but with strong ties to the Conservatives, Saskatchewan now is on the mend economically.
In Ontario we always believe in liberals. Until that tie there is cut there is little help for residents in the province and we can continue to see a party which supports a province that is unpatriotic and constantly trying to separate. As well as spending $15 billion to promote the French language in the rest of Canada yet the province of Quebec doesn’t support or even recognize the ENGLISH language.
Quebec still provides most of my nation’s prime ministers…..