Category: Politics/NDP

NDP Leader Jack Layton speaks to reporters after Question Period today:

Reporter: Mr. Layton, your political opponents have been calling you “Taliban Jack”. Now it looks like we've got “Taliban Barack Obama”, “Taliban Stephen Harper”. Are you getting some company on your side?

Layton: Well, I'm certainly pleased that the Prime Minister has come to accept the position we've advanced for quite some time now that you've got to get involved in negotiations with elements of this insurgency known broadly as the Taliban because it's not a conflict that can ever be won militarily. Now that George Bush is gone from the White House and Barack Obama is there, maybe these arguments have been a little more persuasive on our Prime Minister. That's a good thing. Now Canada should become very active in this process. I think we should use our reputation as peacemakers to be active through the UN and offer our capacities to help sides get together and to actually start talking.

Reporter: The Taliban were a nasty bunch when they were in power, a very oppressive regime. I doubt you want to come out on International Women's Day or the day after and say we should just talk to any of them. So how do you decide who you talk to and who you don't within that?

Layton: Well, what we've got to do, as we've said all along, is reach out to the moderate elements of the insurgency and draw them into discussions. It needs to a comprehensive process involving all the tools that are available for the UN. The UN has many different components that can help make this a success and we've said that Canada should be very active in trying to be involved in all those dimensions because we've got a great reputation and a great expertise here in Canada. I think we can help and we can help it to happen in a way that protects women's rights better than we saw under the previous regime.

Reporter: Are there moderate elements to the Taliban?

Layton: You know the insurgency is composed of a whole series of different components and elements. I mean this is a society that some have described as almost clan-based. It's very mountainous. There's these little communities of interest and focus. Each of them has their own political structure and dynamic and if you can begin to separate some of these organizations and groups and leaders from those that are on the most extreme end, then you can begin to weaken the insurgency through diplomacy, through negotiation. That's what we've always meant by a comprehensive approach to the pursuit of peace in Afghanistan and the accomplishment of some cease-fires area by area. I'm glad the Prime Minister is seeing the wisdom of this approach now. Now let's make sure Canada is a very active proponent of it and involved in it and bringing forward resources to help.

Reporter: Are you feeling vindicated in your approach?

Layton: Look, it's not a question of that. It's a question of being thankful that the Prime Minister is now seeing that the pursuit of peace in Afghanistan requires negotiation. We've been trying to convince him of that for some time. He's come to that conclusion. I welcome it. Let's make sure that Canada is very active using those skills and that reputation that we have as a country for being involved in peacemaking.

… is Jack Layton. So says the new radio spots the New Democratic Party plans to begin airing today.

One spot argues that everyday families were “counting on Michael Ignatieff” to stand up to Stephen Harper but “he failed” in his first test as Liberal Leader. Now, “Jack Layton's the only leader strong enough to stand up to Harper and get us through this economic crisis,” a female announcer says.

Layton, of course, and a handful of other NDP MPs would have been ministers in a Liberal-led government had Ignatieff decided to choose a coalition government instead of Flaherty's budget.

The NDP says these ads will air in parts of the country where they found electoral success last fall and in parts where they believe they can pick up seats in the next election. So, I'm sorry, Western Canada, you're not going to hear them on the radio but you can check them out on the NDP's Web site. For those of you in Northern Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, South Western Ontario, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver — keep your ears open when listening to the radio.

Meanwhile, I can tell you that the Conservatives this morning were continuing to air their radio spots attacking the idea of a coalition government. Heard one on the radio on the way in to work this morning.

The federal New Democratic Party national caucus held an open, i.e. media is welcome, roundtable on the economy today. The NDP roundtable featured presentations from some notable economy experts, including Don Drummond, a former senior bureaucrat at the Department of Finance and now the Chief Economist at the TD Bank.

Two things struck me as I listened to the two-hour roundtable that was at times a little windy but was also filled with the occasional nugget.

First, the very event, it seemed to me, was primarily a political one or one that was organized to serve a political objective, namely to so that the NDP could be seen to be credible on economy issues. NDP members, including leader Jack Layton, listened dutifully to the economic advice that was being offered and asked some relatively intelligent questions.

Second: I was struck at just what kind of rock star, if you will, Drummond has become as a result of the current economic crisis. Drummond is a credible voice on economic policy issues because he seems to be politically unaligned. That's not to say he does not have opinions on policy issues but he views the policy debate in terms of economic outcomes not political outcomes. Where social goals or other non-economic goals play upon a particular policy choice, Drummond recognizes that his area of expertise is not in these non-economic areas and instead falls back to clearly explaining the economic costs or consquences of various policy options. In that way, the work of Drummond and his team of economists at the TD Bank ends up being cited to support seemingly competing political positions.

I should note here that Drummond is not unique in this respect. Several other Bay Street bank economists – I can think of Merrill Lynch's David Wolf, BMO Nesbitt Burns Douglas Porter, and Scotiabank's Warren Jestin to name a few — who are also effective at playing this kind of influential non-partisan role.

After the panel concluded, several NDP MPs were keen to have their photo snapped with Drummond, no doubt so that they could be used in the next MP newsletter. – “See, mom, I've been talking to important economists!” Drummond seemed to suffer the grip-and-grins with good humour and patience.

I'll have more once I go through my notes on some of the nuggets that came out of the meeting.

Even though the NDP has had more trouble than other parties with some of its candidates, it managed to get on the ballot in each of Canada's 308 ridings by the Elections Canada cutoff date of Sept. 22. In fact, it was the only party to do that.
Parties will scramble to get any warm body on the ballot by that cutoff date because Elections Canada sets the national spending limits based on the number of voters in each riding that the party has fielded a candidate — by that cutoff date of Sept. 22.
So anyone dropping off after that date does not affect a party's spending limit.
So, no matter what happens after Sept. 22 to candidates who end up bailing for smoking dope, running around naked, or saying mean things on the Internet about others, here's the number of ridings each party is officially contesting on Oct. 14:

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Who says the blogosophere doesn’t matter?

The president of the NDP, Anne McGrath, wrote a letter today to the president of the Canadian Jewish Congress in which the NDP disavowed any connection to blogger Robert McClelland, a frequent commenter at this blog and one of the organizers of the Blogging Dippers.

At his blog, McClelland had posted an excerpt of a comment by the Rev. Ted Pike. Pike is the director of the Oregon-based Christian evangelical group National Prayer Network and describes himself at that organization’s Web site as “ an outspoken critic of [the Anti-Defamation League’]s evil Jewish leadership.” The excerpt, posted at the end of last week, carried the title “Religious Reich Whingers” and was published without comment from McClelland.

But then, on Sunday afternoon, in the comments to that post, McClelland said he would not not even “muster up a ‘what a shame’” if Jews were persecuted by the state.

This is the comment that sparked McGrath to write her letter; sparked McClelland’s co-blogger to quit the partnership; and sparked Stephane Dion’s chief blogger to accuse McClelland of spewing hatred online (and call for his resignation as head of the Blogging Dippers). Lefty blogger Jean-Francois of Sackville, NB calls on other bloggers who back the NDP to come up with a joint statement about McClelland. The Progressive Bloggers collective wasted little time in voting McClelland off their island. To which McClelland says … well, check it out [see the comments section here] for yourself.