Action, Not An Election

Jack Layton's priorities uncharacteristically straight

With some Liberals musing about the prospects of a fall election and Conservatives dredging up the spectre of the coalition, it's fair to wonder where the priorities of many federal politicians are.

NDP leader Jack Layton, interestingly enough, seems to be one of the few who has his priorities in order.

In a recent radio interview, Layton has noted that his party is going to focus on reform of Employment Insurance, as opposed to merely defeating the government. "I didn't hear anybody saying that they were hankering after an election," Layton admits.

Instead, Layton says the NDP will be focusing on EI reforms that will help Canadians put out of work during the ongoing recession. "Get moving on it Prime Minister, work with us to implement the changes that must happen and must happen now," Layton said before a recent NDP caucus meeting.

"What I heard [Canadians] say is that they want action," Layton said.

"And they want action now, not off in the future when someone deigns to ordain that something should happen in Canadian politics, months and months away from now," he continued.

Layton has already suggested that work on these measures would occupy his party for the next ten weeks. That's two-and-a-half months in which Michael Ignatieff won't be able to mobilize his party's former coalition partner in order to defeat the government.

It isn't like Jack Layton to have his priorities so straight. Usually his party is quite eager to rattle the sabre, threaten to defeat the government, and dismiss any notion of actually working with them.

But Layton's recently-sraightened sense of priorities means that Canadians should see the action they so desire, provided that the Liberals and Conservatives will put petty politics aside long enough to get some work done.