Jack Layton and Stephen Harper forge an apparent alliance

[tuvor]

Progressive NDPers and other Canadian voices undermined by elitist agenda

When was the last time you saw are heard of Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party, leading a huge rally in a Canadian city, in support of criticizing the erosion of Canada's one-tier universal healthcare system, reminiscent of Tommy Douglas? Have you ever seen or heard of Jack Layton rallying Canadians against Canadian military involvement in a reported "War for Oil" in Afghanistan that violates Canada's peacekeeping traditions?

On the contrary, Mr. Layton has shown general support for Mr. Harper's policies concerning Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan. Indeed. Mr. Layton only supported the "need for debate" in the House of Commons for a War which Mr. Layton was already committed to supporting.

Have you seen Jack Layton at any rallies in the spirit of Tommy Douglas, championing the plight of the homelessness or other oppressed Canadians? Have you ever seen Mr. Layton talking out against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which continues to be a basis for undermining labour rights in Canada alongside Canadian sovereignty, as traditional "NDP issues".

(snip)

A working alliance between Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton is the only thing that can explain why Mr. Layton has chosen not to apparently rally Canadians against the clearly reactionary agenda of Mr. Harper. Indeed, if Mr. Layton had logically chosen to galvanize Canadians against the clearly unpopular policies of Mr. Harper in Afghanistan, Lebanon, on Global Warming, AIDS, public healthcare, and on other issues, Conservative popularity would have sunk, arguably to less than 20% of the popular vote, and Mr. Harper's government would be on its way out. The Conservative government facing the prospects of an election triggered-off by a series of unpopular policies would likely fall. The current Conservative minority government would likely collapse, to-be-replaced by a Liberal-NDP minority, with Canadians rewarding an inspired NDP which showed leadership on behalf of Canadians by winning more seats. The reason this has not occurred, appears to be the result of the NDP elite selling-out of the progressive voices and traditions of the NDP.

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2006/08/21/01224.html

[Bragi]

1. Interesting site

The overall theory in the posted article is a bit too conspiratorial for my taste, what with them seeing Jack et al being secretly in the pocket of some murky neocon corporate cabal.

Personally, I think the story is simpler than that. The Jackabites are just unprincipled and opportunist. They believe that they will electorally gain by driving down liberal votes, and they don't really care that this will likely subject Canada to 6-10 years of rule by neocons who will enact policies that a majority of Canadians -- and most NDP voters -- abhor.

Interesting site though. I'll have a look around...

- B

[MrPrax]

2. Sorta a Good Article...

The part I found strange was Laxer's comments:

"...James Laxer, a professor at York University, who has been an outspoken traditional supporter of the NDP, and of socially progressive policies in general, indicated in an article published in the Walrus, that "On election night, January 23, 2006, New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton stood before a buoyant victory party crowd in downtown Toronto and announced that Canadians had voted for change and that more New Democrats in Parliament would mean better lives for working families and seniors."

Laxer further elaborated that "for Layton, winning twenty-nine seats and 17.5 percent of the popular vote represented an electoral triumph vindicating a very particular campaign strategy: an attack focused almost exclusively on the scandal-plagued Liberal government. With 460,000 new voters, ten more Members of Parliament than in 2004, better regional representation, and, judging by the jubilant crowd, momentum, Layton had every reason to be pleased. Indeed, not since the heady days of Ed Broadbent's leadership was the optimism so palpable. Laxer then indicated that "Just the same, in many respects it was what Layton did not say that evening that was more interesting. He did not mention that the most ideologically right-wing Prime Minister in Canadian history was about to be sworn into office; and he did not mention that while the NDP's 2006 election result was impressive, the party would no longer hold the effective balance of power in Parliament."

Laxer must be using a strawman here...because even he can see that Layton thinking that the 2006 election result was an vindication of some strategy was delusional. The NDP's popular vote didn't budge and the added seats were all from BC which just had a very large and vocal teachers' strike where the culprits were Campbell's Liberal government that were mostly Martinites.

Even more delusional and downright supicious is that Layton and the Cult don't actually see that ultimately their growth will have to come from Western Canada (the place where they got those added seats), but in Quebec?...if the article posted by Tuvor from the Hill Times is any indication. I guess the grifters acting as NDP consultants seem to feel that with the Tories rise in popularity there and traditional Liberal support, the NDP will just come up through the middle with vote splitting or something.

I don't think it's a plot, I think Layton realizes his 15 minutes are pretty much up and he is perhaps more interested in using the NDP as a personal vehicle to leverage a patronage appointment. I assume that is why he might be trying to get into the good graces of scary Harper -- hoping Harper (someone!) will give him a parachute.

The arrogance of this useless little unprincipled man is boundless...seriously...other than looking like a professional 'window dressing', has anybody ever heard him give a speech or anything where they remarked, 'gosh what an intelligent guy or what a great platform'. Nope...usually it's just, 'he's better than the last two NDP leaders'.

But anyway...yeah the site itself is crude Liberal party astro-turfing...but they do have some babes




Strange though that on their Home page they have a tabbed link for News that fly outs with a choice of More News, Toronto News, American News...but talks about the Canadian Dream of both Trudeau and Douglas...

While claiming to be some Progressive publication, any progressive would be a little hard press to find interest in a headlined article called:

"The Bush Doctrine in Iraq and Afghanistan violates Biblical Covenant" (OMG...well Mr Bush has lost my support...)

;-)

[MrPrax]

3. Did some checking - spoke too soon...

This site is the newspaper of something called...

The Cosmopolitan Party of Canada
http://www.agoracosmopolite.com/
which seems entirely based on the writings of Raymond Samuels and has an endorsement by David Kilgour



Sites are registered to:

Jorge Genes
Agora Publishing c/o Raymond Samuels
170 Kane Ave
Winnipeg, mb R3J 2P2 CA

But this part is strange:

Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 PHP/4.3.11 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_ssl/2.8.22 OpenSSL/0.9.7a

22-Aug-2006
66.103.152.200
ProNIC Solutions

Moreover the webmaster email is: mot(AT)pronicsolutions.com
Country IP with the hops also confirms it's Amurican...

ProNIC Solutions is a web-host in Orlando, Florida...

So these Big Time Canuck nationalists aren't so nationalistic as to use a Canadian web hosting service, hmm... (mind you ProNIC does have good rates)

Zerbisias mentions them in her blog from Feb
http://thestar.blogs.com/azerb/2006/02/whats_this_the_.html

(There are some good/bad comments about these guys in her feedback section you can find through the above link...the concensus is that they are a bunch of Marxists...ergo all the Liberal Red)

:shrug:

[Canuckistanian]

4. I almost forgot about "The Canadian"

I bookmarked it, but never got a chance to look around.

Interesting article, too bad about Layton, he could have done some good when it counted the most.

I haven't liked an NDP leader since Ed Broadbent.

[laundry_queen]

5. Layton lost me

When he forced the last election.
Opportunist is his middle name.
In the meantime we suffer neocon policies.
I've never believed in means to an end.