Apolitical Staples

Smart of Harper, smart of Layton, I’d say.

It’s also interesting to hear that Harper plans for this government to last two years, no?

Is an approchement possible? Certainly — for two reasons:

1. There are a number of pragmatists in the NDP caucus whom the Tory braintrust will listen to, particularly in areas like health service provision and safety net spending where the Tories may need another viewpoint in order to craft policy.

2. The NDP have the same understanding of populist politics as the current incarnation of the CPC, and this provides common ground.

Conservatives ahead of the bloc in Quebec!

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/02052006/6/n-canada-conservatives-lead-separatists-poll.html

What I liked about Layton here is he refused and still got the money.

Clearly, this was a case of mistaken messaging: Harper should have pitched it as “five year plan”. Mwah.

To do that Bob, he would have had to wait until yesterday and that was clearly too late for this budget. ;)

I think you missed the important part of the story, Greg.

Instead, the New Democrats quietly called the groups and governments counting on the cash that could be lost from C-48, such as provinces, municipalities and transit agencies, setting in motion a furious backroom lobbying effort to save the spending program.

Layton turned this around on Harper and got what he wanted without making a deal to support the Conservatives.

Jack Layton is a genius.

Robert McLelland is a genius.

There is simply no denying it.

I agree with Idealistic Pragmatist: smart move on Harper’s part, and smart move on Layton’s. And I don’t think the negotiations have ended.

I think Harper can govern comfortably if he approaches each issue on a case-by-case basis and negotiates with the individual parties on the other side of the house. He only needs one party’s support on any given issue to pass it. And if he can do that, he’ll be a good prime minister, in my opinion. But he has to work against his personal tendency to be something of a control freak.

Layton a “genius”? Not likely.

One thing we do not and never will know, is what the impact on the election results would have been if the election had not been precipitated by Layton and Duceppe being hoodwinked by Harper to join in bringing down the government and have an election in January, rather than after the Gomery commission’s final report.

We do know that Martin was unable to shake the corruption tag hung around his neck by Harper, aided and abetted by the Bloc and NDP. We also know that the release of a notice by the RCMP during the January campaign about another scandal blew the bow off the Liberal Titanic.

However, Layton has to answer for his willingness to accelerate the election date rather than wait for the Gomery report. It is possible that the release of that report, with its clearance of Paul Martin, coupled with steps by the Liberal government after its release to have those named by Gomery as implicated in wrongdoing, brought to justice, might have taken enough sting out of the corruption charge to mean a slightly different election result. Voters might have elected to punish the Liberals by giving them a minority government, rather than Harper.

The results – despite an inept and bumbling campaign by Martin and his group, and Harper’s strident (and today rather ironic, given his own actions to date) cries of corruption – were not as positive for Harper as people seem to think. He barely made it to a minority government, and voters in the large cities turned their faces from his neocon party’s policies.

Layton miscalculated, by being suckered by Harper, and by misjudging the results. He thought the NDP would hold the balance of power in the new Parliament. He failed in this task. The results of his cold electoral calculation is the election of the most rightwing government in Canada’s history, which has an agenda to dismantle the Canadian government by stealth, as Harper’s public utterances admit. His party president is on record as saying that achieving power by stealth (by not telling voters all that the New Tories want to do, but then taking steps once they have a majority government) was the Tory aim, and they disciplined themselves to this end.

All these signs were clear before Layton chose to sup with the devil. What on earth made this long time politician misjudge the nature of Harper and his Tory party?

At best, Layton displayed incredible lack of judgment in analysing the threat posed to the values of the NDP by the neocon New Tories; at worst, Layton showed a lust for personal power which outstripped his political acumen.

Voters will reward him for his actions come the next election.

Don’t forget that even the Nazis and Soviets were able to come to a symbiotic deal; albeit only temporarily, until one stabbed the other in the back…