[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[crazy canuck]

Hmmm....maybe Harper can call an election. 

[Neil]

Don't rule out Chow replacing him and she'll forever be Layton's Wife.

Having an Asian woman for a leader would be moronic, as they are incapable of human feelings.  Just ask CdM.

For all the good feelings that Layton arouses amongst the ignorant masses, the bloody succession is liable to cause something of a recoil, especially since the lunatic left of the party will be venting their spleens at every journalist and camera in sight.

[Josephus]

Having an Asian might help us the NDP recapture the ethnic vote we they allegedly lost to the Tories in the last election.

[Neil]

Having an Asian might help us the NDP recapture the ethnic vote we they allegedly lost to the Tories in the last election.

I rather doubt it.  Everyone hates Tiger Mothers.

[viper37]

Are you arguing that Jack Layton is experiencing the Princess Diana effect, whereby a nice enough but generally unremarkable figure gets transformed by a tragic death into someone completely different?

I think his tragic death accelerated that perception.  He was elected because he looks & sound like a nice grand daddy, always smiling.

And before he could make any serious mistakes, or disapoint his electors, he passed away.
What will people remember?  The politician who did nothing, or the politician who did nothing bad?

[Barrister]

Are you arguing that Jack Layton is experiencing the Princess Diana effect, whereby a nice enough but generally unremarkable figure gets transformed by a tragic death into someone completely different?

No, but your bias is clearly showing.  I am arguing that Layton's manner and the way he conducted his political life was admirable and he has become much beloved for that fact.

I'm not a huge Jeffrey Simpson fan, but this column puts more into perspective Layton's recent adulation:

Jack Layton: One stunning triumph does not a visionary make
JEFFREY SIMPSON | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011 2:00AM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011 12:13PM EDT
608 comments Email  Print/License Decrease text size Increase text size  Not since the death of Wilfrid Laurier in 1919 had a leader of the opposition died in office. So the country found itself in rather a protocol void after the death of NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Mr. Layton's political beatification, including his own testament published posthumously, was a mixture of the calculated and the spontaneous. Without the central tragedy of his death, at the moment of his greatest triumph and at the cruelly young age of 61, it's doubtful the whole affair would have achieved the resonance and poignancy it did.

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How will the NDP cope with losing Jack Layton? Other political leaders who had been given state funerals had died after leaving office, their political trails blazed and finished. But here was someone who, having laboured in the relative obscurity of leading a third or fourth party, suddenly found himself and his party where they'd never been before, except perhaps in their dreams.

NDP strategists then wrapped this very human tragedy in the embrace of partisanship, a very normal reaction from them but something that gave the impression of events being used at least partially for political ends. Perhaps this is what Mr. Layton wanted, too. After all, he was offering political advice about what should happen after his death before he died. Rather than ask that any donations be sent to, say, the Cancer Society, he asked that they be directed to the fledging Broadbent Institute that's supposed to become another left-wing think tank.

It has been often remarked that the outpouring of affection for Mr. Layton stemmed, in part, from his "vision." Canadians, it's asserted, hunger for what he offered them. That's precisely what the New Democrats who helped to plan the events and write his beautiful letter, and spoke in Toronto at his funeral, wanted everyone to believe, for they believe it themselves. Let's remember, however, that a strong majority of Canadians did not vote for Mr. Layton's party, just as a majority did not support Stephen Harper.

Indeed, Mr. Harper's party got more votes than Mr. Layton's, and no one has yet described Mr. Harper as a visionary. Reading the election results properly would suggest a sizable minority of Canadians warmed to Mr. Layton's vision, but the majority did not hunger for it at all. The largest number might just be anti-visionary voters of the kind that endorsed Mr. Harper.

Mr. Layton was a mainstream New Democrat, and there's nothing wrong with that. His "vision," if you wish to use that expression, was almost to the letter that of his predecessors. That this "vision" caught fire, and made Mr. Layton posthumously into a "visionary" offering the kind of politics for which Canadians hunger, must leave his predecessors as rather less effective than him – which does many of them an injustice.

Timing can be almost everything in politics, and so it was for Mr. Layton in the last election. He played the same hand he always played, only this time some of his opponents misread theirs.

Mr. Layton had one stunning triumph, and only one: the last election. He might have had more, or perhaps that election was his last, best innings. We shall never know. The unknowable – the possibility of greatness manqué – added to the beatification. Admirable as Mr. Layton was, it's doubtful that, had he actually been prime minister and had to make hard decisions, he would have been so popular. That, too, we shall never know.

Unknowable, now, is whether the radiance of his memory (Mr. Layton was always more popular than the NDP) will light the path for his successor. These are trying times for leftish parties, with conservatives in office (or soon to be) in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Sweden, the U.S. House of Representatives and a majority of U.S. state capitals. Whatever his admirable qualities, Barack Obama has certainly not been much of a liberal, let alone anything remotely like a social democrat.

No doubt, each NDP leadership candidate will insist that he or she best reflects Mr. Layton's "vision," the one, it's asserted, for which Canadians so hunger.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/jeffrey-simpson/jack-layton-one-stunning-triumph-does-not-a-visionary-make/article2147682/

[Malthus]

People aren't reacting to Layton's death because of his alleged political vision, but because they (rightly or wrongly) perceived him as a nice guy, his triumph-then-death struck them as full of pathos, and giving him a state funeral and honouring his memory struck many as the opposite of the sort of rabid political partisanship on such ugly display both south of the border and increasingly up here as well - and many Canadians of all poltical stripes long for an increase in civility and mutual respect in politics.

For this reason, I suspect that the NDP sympathy-bump in the polls will be short-lived.

[viper37]

New director or communications in Ottawa, for Harper's cabinet.  A unilingual anglophone who dislikes the French.  Oh yeah, I feel the love
French text

Angelo Persichilli, former Toronto Star journalist:  "There are too many french in parliament, too many french in public service".  He goes to claim Quebec is a priviledge province and all the troubles of Canada are because of Quebec.  Apparently, the Federal government is now seen as a big ATM because politicians are trying to buy the loyalties of Quebecers.

I guess it's to please Quebec that the Feds decided to guarantee a loan to Newfoudland so they could compete with us on electricity production & delivery.  Yep, it's totally logical.

In another piece, he now cheers that Quebec no longer decides the politicians (did we, ever?).  He's happy the Feds will now pamper Ontario to gain their support, election after election.  I can't see the end to those huge deficit.  Ontarians aren't bought for cheap.  I suppose one huge SEC like entity is the price to pay.  Oh wait, that's not a price for Ontario, it's a gift
A quick summary of the man's toughts
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/991386--persichilli-harper-and-mcguinty-called-quebec-s-bluff
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/793143--persichilli-be-careful-what-you-wish-for-monsieur-duceppe


Well, I guess the party will live without my money, and without my vote for now.  The last candidate lost by 10-12 votes here last time.  This time, he won't even get near 2nd base.  Hopefully for them, the Conservatives will have enough money to pay for Ontario's vote.  It might be a little difficult for Alberta, as it seems they are the only ones paying for equalization instead of receiving.

[Neil]

Quebec rejected the Tories, and then they want more free stuff?

You guys are silly.

[viper37]

What free stuff did we get and what free stuff are we asking now?

[Valmy]

What free stuff did we get and what free stuff are we asking now?

All those free seats in the Parliament and all those free jobs in the public service obviously.

[viper37]

ah.  Thanks for the precisions.  It's hard to tell what Neil's talking about most of the time.

[Barrister]

New director or communications in Ottawa, for Harper's cabinet.  A unilingual anglophone who dislikes the French.  Oh yeah, I feel the love

Believe it or not Viper, but those words are not synonyms.

Perischilli is perfectly bilingual - English and Italian.

http://www.angelopersichilli.com/
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1047357--star-columnist-angelo-persichilli-to-join-pmo

Besides - why is is important for every single person in the PMO to be bilingual?  Harper's press secretary knows French, as does the PM himself.

[Valmy]

I guess he is annoyed the dude in charge of communications doesn't speak French.

But if the sickening speed the Italians I was with in France picked up French is any indication he could be fluent in about one week of effort.

[Drakken]

Italian is not an official language in Canada. What counts is, does he speak French or not?