Jack and Gilles Went Up The Hill

The coalition turbulence that descended on Ottawa a number of months ago quickly blew across the entire country.  Gilles Duceppe took on a kind of observer status to all the happenings.  The Bloc’s interests were only provincial anyway, and if a deal with the other opposition parties could bring him that much closer to getting more concessions for Quebec, he was glad to accommodate. But for the NDP’s Jack Layton it was a shot at the one thing he knew that as a leader of his party he would likely never acquire – a seat at the cabinet table.  During the Liberal leadership convention over two years ago, he had observed that the Liberals would never elect a decent man like Stephane Dion.  But no sooner had Dion taken on the chief role than Jack Layton began pummeling the Liberals instead of his more natural opponent, the Conservatives.  He was lucky.  As Dion’s fortunes sagged, Jack saw a surge in the polls.  When the election dust had settled, his party experienced a modest increase, though not to the degree his supporters hoped for.In the past year, two decisions defined Jack Layton more than any other.  The first was his decision to join with the Bloc and the Liberals in an attempt to bring down Stephen Harper’s government.  That attempt, as we all know, failed … miserably.  And while it ushered in a new era of hope for the Liberals with the quick rise of Michael Ignatieff as the party leader, Layton was left with the remnants of the coalition and it left a bitter taste in the mouths of most Canadians.His second defining decision came when he informed Canadians that he would vote against the Conservative budget weeks before it even came out.  Something seemed strangely undemocratic about that decision, and as the economic decline descended on the country it also appeared irresponsible.When he ascended the hill with Duceppe at the beginning of the coalition attempt, he could not have guessed that he alone would come tumbling down as the scapegoat for such a risky exercise.  Dion would have been punished as well, except he exited the scene shortly thereafter.  Gilles Duceppe merely shrugged it off and looked for another dance partner.Many NDP supporters across the country didn’t know what to think.  The experience had left them a bit jaded.And now news emerges that the very Conservative government that Layton said had no more moral right to govern was working on some kind of deal with the NDP to stave off a fall election.  As with so much in politics, morality disappears like a fog when survival is at stake.  All parties and their leaders have done it in the past, but for right now it’s Jack Layton’s turn and it isn’t pretty.For those sincere NDP’ers who keenly recognize that it’s the Conservative agenda that constitutes their greatest threat, it will be difficult to handle if Jack Layton cozies up to Stephen Harper.  It could be his third and final mortal decision.  Morality will suddenly be in short supply in Ottawa in the next few months, but for the NDP it will be especially painful, following years of taking the ethical issues in Ottawa more seriously than some others.  They are now being squeezed in both directions and I feel their pain.  But it is the pain Jack has brought on to them and there are only two options.  Dance with Stephen or resort to their higher principles.  I hope they take the latter.  We require that influence.