Should we be surprised now that NDP leader Jack Layton has made his deal with that devil PM Stephen Harper to stave off an election?
Core NDPers are expressing horror and dismay. But they’re the only ones.
Layton, for all his airiness, is a realist. He would have to be to have survived this long in politics. He knows, and higher ups in the NDP know, that the party has much more to lose by forcing an election.
A vote could spell disaster, the loss of a whack of seats. The first objective must be to survive so that the party can live to fight another day.
A no-brainer, really, even if keeping the Tories in power proves a little embarrassing for Layton. Will the rank and file really desert him in the next election for playing footsies with the Tories? It’s doubtful, unless those leadership questions arise.
Granted, core Dippers can be just as voracious as the power hungry Libs when it comes to eating their own. See Bob Rae.
But there’s too much at stake to allow too many votes to bleed the Libs’ way or to the Greens.
All of a sudden it’s the Tories ramping up the election pressure, hinting at introducing an economic update sooner than expected to force a confidence vote. They’re reading the polls, too, that show them pulling away from the Libs.
And the rumblings in Quebec political circles that Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe may resign. Will that re-open the door for Tory gains in la belle province?
It’s just like the good old days on Parliament Hill, the Harper minority, playing chicken with the opposition.
Blame Michael Ignatieff.
Pity the brainy Liberal leader. Before the “lost summer” there was the big missed opportunity – that little thing called a “separatist socialist coalition.” Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?
Ignatieff dithered, the moment was lost.
Economic doom and gloom was front and centre, then.
Now, most voters seem focused on recovery – however elusive that may be – despite the Tories’ own estimates of a deficit of $100 billion by 2015. Talk about a slap in the face.
That Harp, he’s a real chameleon.
