The Ottawa Citizen gets it right this morning with an editorial on why NDP leader Jack Layton is the ultimate loser for his public spat with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff over the latter’s decision to sustain the Harper government, for now. The Citizen’s description of the reasons for Layton’s ire is apt. Layton saw a path to the Cabinet table, despite the fact that less than one in five voters wanted a New Democrat there. In real or theatrical frustration, Layton yesterday declared the 2008 coalition agreement with the Liberals “dead”. Ignatieff notably did not. Liberal’s alone cannot hold the government accountable with the quarterly report cards on the budget’s effectiveness. The Conservatives can only be defeated in the House of Commons with the combined support of the three opposition parties and, with the previous Bloq Québecois voters liking what they see in Michael Ignatieff, that combination is less certain.
The coalition was a necessary pact in December when the Conservatives tabled an astoundingly deficient budget. The government manoeuvred its way out a crisis by proroguing Parliament and preparing a new budget rife with Liberal and New Democrat content. The deepening economic crisis demands a government response as quickly as possible. Changing governments – whether through an election or, less probably, vice-regal invitation – would only result in delay and further economy-damaging instability. While most Canadians want to see the Conservatives out of office for policy reasons other then the budget, they don’t think now is the time for that change. Parliament will be dominated by fiscal issues and the government, we must hope, will not be so foolish as to get defeated over some other matter of policy principle in the immediate future. I emphasize immediate future, since I still believe the government won’t last 18 months, possibly less.
Once Parliament was prorogued, the NDP, like the Liberals, should have turned its attention to getting the best budget possible and holding the government accountable. Desperate for a chair in the Cabinet room, Layton’s NDP had token meetings with the government, pronounced It unfit and declared its lack of confidence in the budget before knowing a word of what it would contain. Ignatieff and the Liberals, in contrast, embarked on a national “listening tour” and public consultations with Canadians on what they wanted in the budget and then informed the government what would need to be in the budget to get their support. Canadians respected the Liberal leader’s approach and the polls are showing the results. The budget is far from ideal but, if effectively implemented, it’s better than further delay, instability and the spending hundreds of millions on a second election in 4 months.
The reference to Layton’s theatrics is informed by having witnessed his behaviour in municipal and federal politics over decades. Layton was a classical ambulance chaser while a city councillor. Not the lawyer who rushed to the scene of every tragedy looking for someone to sue, but the politician who showed up at fires, accidents and suicides to have his picture taken with the victims or their families and to blame his City Hall opponents for most every tragedy. He was also a splendid actor who could pull a bicycle from the trunk of his limousine to ride the last few metres to an event as a green hero, or flirt with the men in the gay village as an ambiguous metrosexual, Olivia’s more recent prescience notwithstanding. Lacking the talent to build a credible and effective political machine, he reverts to theatrics to garner attention and feed his considerable ego. Toronto voters saw through the performance, denied him the mayor’s office and dispatched him from City Hall. Canadian voters, nationally, were no more gullible in November 2008, despite Layton’s attacks on the Liberals and an unprecedentedly unpopular leader, and denied the NDP the increase in popular support he so desperately sought. When Layton rages about how many times Liberals supported Conservatives in the last Parliament, he overlooks NDP MP’s complicity in sustaining the government. He fails to recognise that the electorate is wise enough to see through his performance.
Layton’s ambition has been crushed. He is livid. Expect more dramatic attacks on Liberals and Michael Ignatieff in the weeks ahead. When the report cards on the government’s performance come in, where will Layton’s rage take him, and us? Eventually there will be new elections. Layton and the NDP will be losers still.
