Monday, April 20, 2009

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.

2 comments:

  1. Patrick,

    Have to admit it is heartening that Manic-Jack decided to step back for a few weeks and rationally consider his party's next step. Hopefully the NDP commits itself to maintaining this new found focus and does not fall prey to its inner demon that so often sees it go off the rails. Who knows, if they can shape the debate in a way that it nets real results in sphere of UI reform maybe they might be able to preserve their base? Time will tell.

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  2. Wow... I just can't believe that I actually agree on something with Layton... He still doesn't have my vote, but if he keeps talking like this I just my switch over from red to orange next election...

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