Desperately
seeking orange

>> NDP leader Jack Layton hopes to finally
establish a presence in Quebec

SOVEREIGNTY DIVIDE BEHIND US: Layton

by MATTHEW HAYS

Jack Layton has been the leader of the NDP since 2003. In that time, of course, the country has stumbled through the Liberal Party scandal, a Liberal minority government, and now, a Conservative minority. Layton has worked to revitalize the NDP’s public standing after some lean years, striving to restore the party’s reputation as the “social conscience” of Canada’s parliament.

And Layton is now hoping that, with the issue of sovereignty apparently on the back burner in Quebec, the traditionally more left-leaning citizens of la belle province might actually think to vote for the unofficial party of earnest, granola-munching, vegan, Birkenstock-wearing socialistas. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that—some of my best friends fall into that demographic.)

The Mirror caught up with Layton to discuss the NDP’s chances in Quebec, what worries him most about Conservatives in power, and that nasty election that resulted in Harper—the only federal leader to suggest we join Bush’s invasion of Iraq—in the Prime Minister’s office. Fittingly, we spoke on Labour Day.

Mirror: Why do you feel it’s taken so long for the NDP to get some traction in Quebec?

Jack Layton: Because the prominent question in Quebec for many years was what could be called the national question. It created a divide in Quebec politics that meant that every time a vote was cast, it was about the sovereignty of the nation. It’s taken a while to take that down. Social democrats felt compelled to vote for either the Liberals or the Bloc, depending on where they stood on the sovereignty issue. That great divide—red and blue—was so dominant that there wasn’t any room. In the last 15 years, the NDP also didn’t put the same focus on Quebec that we are now. The question on people’s minds is no longer a single question. A lot of Quebecers now are thinking about the war, about the environment, about the squeeze affecting working families, affordable education and housing. With those issues coming into the mix, it’s opened doors for us. It’s also meant that we’ve ended up being able to attract better candidates, Thomas Mulcair being one of them.

M: It’s odd, because the values of a majority of Quebecers would seem to fit the NDP well.

JL: I agree with you. I was born in Montreal, and I’m hoping that by putting more focus on Quebec, we’ll be able to attract more attention here.

M: What alarms you most about the current Conservative government?

JL: I would say the virage [turn] towards the politics and policies of George Bush, at the very time that the American people are taking a virage away from those policies. Harper seems to have come in with the philosophical perspective of the White House. Canada’s at war now. The world is looking at Canada and saying, “What has happened? Canada used to be a voice for peace. It used to lead in environmental initiatives. It’s now ignoring its own commitments.” We’re sitting on a huge surplus, $6-billion, and there’s no indication that Harper is going to move to help our cities out. And I don’t see [Liberal leader Stéphane] Dion as providing strong leadership. So we’re here to offer an alternative.

Who’s to blame?

M: I would agree about Harper. So don’t you regret helping the Conservatives and the Bloc bring down the last Liberal minority government?

JL: The history needs to be examined closely here. It was Paul Martin who pulled that plug. He made, I think, a fatal error. He said he would call an election 30 days after Gomery reported. In other words, I’m bringing this minority government down after the report, and he never should have done that. We were going to have an election in March of 2006 by his call. So we kept him in power. In June 2005, we forced him to change his budget, so we kept him in another six months. But in the subsequent fall, we said we’ll keep you in until the subsequent March, but you’ll have to pick some issue that you can work with us on. There are things that need to be done in the country. He refused. He thought that Gomery would exonerate the Liberal Party and that he’d defeat the Conservatives. He wanted that election—at that time, he was several points ahead in the polls. I wrote a public letter asking him to work with us on an issue, and he refused. So the House fell.

M: It was a terrible disappointment, because the budget you and the Liberals collaborated on was one of the most progressive in our country’s history. I think we’re much worse off with a Conservative minority than a Liberal one.

JL: I think it’s important to keep in mind that the results would have been the same in March as they were in January. People were tired of the Liberal arrogance and their unfortunate tendency to think that, after 13 years in power, they didn’t have to listen to the Canadian people. It wasn’t any political party that brought them down, it was the Canadian people.

M: Do you ever get people telling you that you blew it by helping to bring them down?

JL: No. Some Liberals say it, but not independent voters. People were upset with the Liberals.

M: Isn’t it a little bit disconcerting right now though, when the country is being run by the cast of Hee Haw?

JL: (laughs). I’ll let you use language like that—I remember that show. But it’s very disconcerting. I don’t believe that Canadians will give the Conservatives a majority. And I hope they won’t give them a minority either. We’re hoping for some breakthrough results here, to show some real movement.

M: When you’re taking a coffee break in the House of Commons, and you’re chatting with a Conservative minister, do you ever ask them if they believe in evolution?

JL: (laughs). I think the evidence is clear from their behaviour in the House. I haven’t actually asked them that though, no.

Mulcair’s battle

The NDP’s Outremont candidate
insists he’s electable

COURTING THE WELL-HEELED VOTE: Thomas Mulcair

by MATTHEW HAYS

Thomas Mulcair is being widely touted as the NDP’s star candidate in the Sept. 17 Outremont by-election. He certainly has his principled credentials intact—he left the government of Quebec’s Liberal government after disagreements over environmental issues with Premier Jean Charest.

Mulcair’s track record is impressive, with a CV that includes work for the disabled as well as his solid history as a proponent of environmental causes. A vote for Mulcair in the riding of Outremont would seem a logical one, but the NDP faces the same stumbling block it has in years past: most voters have marked their ballots with sovereignty in mind, meaning progressive francophone voters opted for the Bloc. A vote for the NDP often felt like a wasted one, with their candidates usually trailing behind badly. This left Anglo voters with nowhere to go; with most Anglos being federalist, it always felt imperative to vote for a federalist moderate party like the Liberals.

“That’s changed now,” says Mulcair. “It used to be that it was always either a default vote for the Bloc or the Liberals. But politics, like life, is about context. The BQ has passed its best-before date. And there’s real dissatisfaction with Dion’s weak leadership. I think we have a very real chance of winning.”

As well, he says the NDP has taken principled stances, something the public—especially in Quebec, on the issue of Afghanistan—now appreciates. “The NDP came under a lot of criticism for opposing our involvement in Afghanistan. Now most Canadians support their position.”

And he reminds Quebecers of an important bit of local history. When Trudeau declared the War Measures Act in 1970, effectively suspending civil liberties across the country, the NDP was the only party to oppose the move in Parliament.

“People are now seeing what the Conservatives are really about. And they’re not confident in Dion’s abilities to lead. I think the NDP could form the opposition in the next election.”