A new poll came out Tuesday from Angus Reid that shows NDP support nationally at 30 per cent, behind the Conservatives at 35 per cent and well ahead of the Liberals at 22 per cent. And here are some excerpts from NDP Leader Jack Layton's speech this morning in Winnipeg:
Can you feel the winds of change blowing here in Manitoba?
Well you are not alone. Spring is here. And I am feeling the winds of change all across this great country of ours.
They’re blowing in from BC, from Alberta and Saskatchewan, through Manitoba and Ontario. From Newfoundland and Labrador. New Brunswick. And Nova Scotia. From the great North of our country.
And my friends the winds of change are blowing strongly in Quebec.
Now, the old parties are spending the last week on the attack. Hoping to drown out the voices for change in Canada. Well, in the final days of this campaign, New Democrats will launch a few attacks of our own.
My friends, I will attack health care wait times. I will attack doctor shortages. I will attack seniors’ poverty ….
The Layton tour will finish the day in Edmonton where it not only hopes to defend the one seat it holds in Edmonton-Srathcona is hopeful of winning two others in that city.
If by any chance T. Jack became PM, and the Dippers had ministers in charge of say some of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Public Safety, can you imagine the reductions in, and cut off of in some cases of, defence–and esp. intelligence–exchanges by our closest allies? Not to mention the security problems for Canadian organizations. Who could trust the NDP to keep real secrets? There are some.
These considerations would also obtain if the NDP occupied some such offices under a coalition with a Liberal PM.
Mark
Ottawa
Just wait for Michael Byers as PM Layton's personal foreign policy adviser, and Steve Staples as chief of staff to the MND!
If T. Jack does become PM I fear for relations with the US and the effects on the CF. The NDP ideal is a gendarmerie to serve the UN and to put out forest fires at home (not brush fires abroad): Smokey the Soldier!
“The NDP Platform on Defence”
Once they see the budget realities the CF will take real hits, contrary to the platform.
Mark
Ottawa