You may if so inclined charge me with a moment of self-congratulation, but I wish to refer to an essay posted herein back on May 28th. In it, I delivered a forecast that should the Liberal Party of Canada abandon its mating dance with the ruling Conservatives, and declare the Harper government finished, done with, toast, and deserving of immediate overthrow, a rescuer would appear without delay. Chatterbox of a fellow named Jack Layton, I said.
Well, the Grits have now made their move: Michael Ignatieff, the party leader of wooden visage and insipid grin, has thrown down the gauntlet. The Tories, he says, are no longer fit to govern and so there’ll be a motion of non-confidence introduced at the earliest possible moment – perhaps tomorrow – in order that the nation be relieved of the Conservative plague.
Bring forth the conservator: none other than the bristling and rumbumptious Jack Layton. He is, of course, leader of the federal NDP caucus, now as always a grating and self-righteous sideshow on Parliament Hill. Layton has been hornpiping around for months with accusations of Liberal and Conservative complicity, nay conspiracy, and declaring himself prepared at a moment’s notice to support any move, any motion, any effort to defeat the Tories and their dreaded bully of a boss, Stephen Harper.
He’s a man of more than one face, this Layton. You’ll remember that last December he was quivering with glee at the thought he might actually achieve some significant power and influence in Ottawa by way of that nascent and foolish NDP-Liberal-Bloc Quebecois coalition which within weeks had become wholly discredited and was cast aside. Ignatieff, in one of the few credible moments of his leadership tenure, was the man who ensured the plug was pulled, notwithstanding earlier musings that he might leave it in place.
Now as soon as that unseemly grab for power had been consigned to the dumpster of political detritus, Layton responded with rigid indignation. He appeared before the cameras without pausing for breath, never mind coherent reasoning, and declared that a fresh coalition had now been struck – between the Grits and Tories. This was just a terrible turn of events, said Jackie, but the nation could rest assured he and the NDP would press on with their essential and patriotic duty to vote against the Harper govenment on any and all issues.
The worm turns, does it not? Jack Layton has become the Sir Walter Raleigh of our political times, gladly placing his threadbare coat into the Liberal puddle in order that Stephen Harper may tread safely toward continuing governance with his shoes undampened and political powder dry.
What’s been most interesting about this Layton U-turn is the manner of straws he clutched to make it happen and in contrast to his usual bombast, the anxious comportment with which he did so. In fact, little Jackie’s initial reponse to the Liberal challenge was to offer no response at all: he was asked time and again about his descent from lofty rectitude to grubbing for political survival, but turned aside the queries by ignoring them. In unprecedented fashion he marched away from reporters and cameras, tried to blend in with the crowds, piddling though they were, and was therefore caught for all to see in the bright lights of a devious about-face.
It’s often been observed that Jack Layton never saw a camera but that he didn’t instantly fall in love with it. But he’s evidently prepared to flee from the tryst when the microphone is held by a journalist posing a hard question such as “why the flip and the flop, Jacko?” Or “where’s the hard ass Jack, Jack?”
No reply, but rather an untiring effort to bring the art of evasion followed by disappearance to hitherto unseen altitudes. Once aloft and above the fray, Layton settled into his aerie and left his caucus privates and corporals to treadle the loom and weave the spin.
They performed with unconvincing and hesitant mumblings, disengenuous and furtive. Winnipeg North MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis, a woman of greater competence than most of her colleagues but prone to shrill hectoring, instantly sprang out of the blocks to wonder if Canada’s chief electoral officer might be worried about a fall election, given the risk of an H1N1 flu pandemic? Were an outbreak to occur as predicted, people attending campaign rallies, for example, or perhaps out canvassing would be potentially exposed to infection and grave illness. Might it be assumed the Chief Electoral Officer shared those concerns, and would perhaps caution against a quick election?
The thesis was so absurdly transparent and so beyond the administrative purview of the Chief Electoral Officer as to warrant no reply, and none was forthcoming. But it did reveal an NDP caucus turned tomato-cans, willing to take a dive to the canvas in preference to enforced retirement for a good many of its members.
Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar then flung himself to the mat by saying proposed government amendments to employment insurance legislation appeared to be serious and would of course merit the most careful attention. And in any event, said Dewar, the EI changes, as writ, would surely not be the chinning bar which the NDP would grasp and then rise from the floor of the ring for combat renewed.
They talk a good game, do the New Democrats, except when confronted with the probability, perhaps certainty, of heading to the campaign trail while at the same time repeated polling shows them eddying through an open political drain. An immediate election would consign the NDP to virtual oblivion, and even though Jack Layton and his strident caucus have little more than imaginary power and influence right now, they’d have much less were an election called next week, or month, or year.
The New Demorats, pompous and overbearing, aren’t a serious political entity in Ottawa and with the party now in headlong retreat, the real question more than ever is why on earth we pay any attention to them at all. They’re on the deck, comatose, out cold, recoiling in abject terror from the spectre of sure and certain obliteration at the polls.
Remember what Joe Louis said about his opponents in the ring? “They can run but they can’t hide.” Not quite Joe. Up here in Canada, the New Democrats and little Jackie Layton have done both.