From the Prairie Dog, January 10-17 2007

Jack Layton has got himself into serious trouble. It is hard to believe that a guy like Layton, a mover and shaker in the big city politics of Toronto, could allow himself to get into this mess. I refer to the public perception that Layton is sleeping with the Harper hobgoblins. Casual, unprotected political sex with Tory hobgoblins is very, very dangerous. Almost every time you are afflicted with one, some or all of the many ITDs making the rounds out there. I am, of course, referring to “ideologically transmitted diseases.”

Layton denies that he has gone all the way with Harper. But Harper has put on the seductive charm, speaking, for the first time in his life, positively about the NDP and its leader. (In the past, Harper denounced the NDP as evil incarnate and authored the National Citizens’ Coalition’s “very, very scary” character assassination of former NDP leader Ed Broadbent.) Harper has even sent a procurer, new Environment Minister John Baird, out to Vancouver to line up “encounters” and “terms of the relationship” between Layton and the chief hobgoblin. This is ominous, since Baird is deeply trusted by Harper in dealing with his private, intimate relationships - he trusts Baird to escort his wife around when he is out of town.

And the media is on a feeding frenzy of speculation - is he or isn’t he, will he or won’t he sleep with the hobgoblins? Editorialists are giving out free advice. Some suggest Layton should go ahead and jump into bed and get it over with since his prospects of an embrace by the voters in the near future are very dim. Others suggest he should cut off the relationship immediately before he slips too deeply into the notoriously profligate life in the hobgoblin fast lane. Apparently, political sex with hobgoblins, especially with a hobgoblin prime minister, can blow off your socks at the moment of orgasm…..but the price to be paid down the road, when all those festering political sores on your important parts begin to show, can be humiliating and soul destroying.

Layton’s dalliance with the hobgoblins started with an innocent flirtation that he thought would go nowhere. When Harper’s Tories introduced their ridiculously ineffectual Clean Air Act, Layton flashed his eyes and announced that unless the act was improved dramatically he would introduce a motion of non-confidence. Harper, who ordinarily wouldn’t give what he believes to be a big city tart the time of day, smiled and responded warmly. Harper was in trouble. The Bloc had promised to bring the government down over Afghanistan, and new Liberal leader Dion declared an intention to bring the government down over the environment. Harper promised to send the Clean Air Act to a parliamentary committee for revision and challenged Layton to give advice on improvements. To confirm his seriousness in the matter, Harper fired his stumbling Environment Minister, Rona Ambrose, and appointed his favourite “can do” guy John Baird in her place.

Then the “unexpected” happened (unexpected by everyone except Harper, of course). Toronto Liberal MP Wajid Khan, already playing footsie with the hobgoblins as Harper’s Middle East boy toy, crossed the floor to join the Tories. Suddenly the Layton-Harper flirtation became serious. With Khan’s defection bringing the Tories up to 125 seats, Harper can survive as government with the sole support of Layton’s 29 NDP MPs. At that moment, Harper’s seduction of Layton became more intense as he said beamingly, “Mr Layton, unlike the other two opposition parties, has actually put forward some concrete ideas on climate change. We’ll obviously see if we can make some accommodations and move forward.” Harper has folded back the sheets of his big Tory bed and invited Layton to jump in.

Layton is now in a serious pickle. If he jumps in bed and saves the Harper Tories, it will deeply offend his left-leaning base (which hates the Tories for a whole lot more than just the environment). During the earlier, seemingly harmless flirtation, a lot of left-leaning jaws dropped when he offered to help Harper with the Clean Air Act. Now if Layton goes all the way it will shatter his support base. Yet if Layton refuses to continue the relationship he will look like an opportunist flake, hurting his credibility with the public at large. This is the problem with opening your mouth (or flashing your eyes) before you think about the long term implications of what you are doing. And Layton has a motor mouth that often moves before thought.

Layton is putting on a brave face with tough talk about requiring from Harper “dramatic action” and “a sea change” on climate change. He is going to take Harper and the Tories “to the woodpile” on the environment. Harper smiles and declares that Layton’s proposals are very close to his own views, but the problems of climate change are “long-term” and “can’t be fixed overnight.” Get it? Overnight! Harper doesn’t want a one-night stand, but would prefer a longer relationship with Layton - say until the polls roll back in his favour and he can call an election he has a hope of winning.

Layton’s problem results from a common affliction of federal NDP leaders. Yearning for the British model where Labour squares off against the Tories, NDP leaders have always deluded themselves into believing that some day they can come up with the tactics and strategy that sees the disappearance of the Liberals and their replacement by the NDP. This is their own private lunacy and private hell, since every time they play that game they get badly burned. But they never learn. Hence in the last election, Layton’s NDP focussed all their trash talk on the Liberals, giving Harper and the Tories a free ride. And let us not forget how the NDP allowed themselves to be manipulated into playing the lead role in the mid-election smear of the Liberals over the income trust “investigation.” Layton continues to play footsie with the Tories, dreaming of the fall of the Liberals.

Good-bye Jack, or wake up. Your only hope now is to cut it off with Harper and to go after the Tories with both guns blazing. You will have to take your lumps in the next election, because a lot of soft NDP voters are going to stampede to the Liberals in an effort to defeat Harper’s hobgoblins. And your continuing dalliance with the Tories can only increase the number of voters who join that stampede.

This article was posted on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 and is filed under Canadian Issues and Politics, Extra! Extra!, General, NDP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.