Jack's Newswatch

Jack Layton was having a bad day in the midst of what would turn out to be a very bad week for the NDP.

On the NDP front bench, Libby Davies is Layton’s seatmate to his left (appropriately enough), while Tom Mulcair sits just to his right in the far corner of opposition benches. And judging by their body language, the House was an exceedingly uncomfortable place for all three of them.

Davies was under continuous fire for her idiotic statements about Israel given in a video interview to a blogger at an anti-Israeli protest rally in Vancouver on June 5. But it was only this week that her remarks on the Israeli “occupation” of Palestine, dating from 1948 she said, went viral on YouTube.

She had quite a bit more to say about the imperative that “Israel has to remove itself from illegal settlements — they’re basically all illegal.” She went on to refer to the siege, rather than the blockade, of Gaza, and that “there has to be some kind of settlement, whether it’s negotiated or somehow imposed.”

Since Davies is deputy leader of the NDP, the question naturally arose as to whether she was announcing policy other than the boilerplate two-state solution. Mulcair, the party’s other deputy leader who has a large Jewish community in his Montreal riding of Outremont, called her comments “grossly unacceptable.”

Well, who’s in charge of this outfit? Stephen Harper wanted to know when he jumped into the fray in question period on Wednesday. For the second day running, Harper demanded Layton fire Davies for her “extremist” comments and “a fundamental denial of Israel’s right to exist.”

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Related:

A cancer on the political left

Popularity: 7% [?]

OTTAWA—Jack Layton says he is calling Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s bluff over the controversial omnibus budget bill that calls for the sale of Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. and the watering down of federal environmental assessment requirements.

The NDP leader is to tell a party gathering in Toronto on Saturday that the NDP caucus will no longer be “bullied” by a Conservative government that believes the threat of a federal election will hold the opposition parties at bay.

The NDP will oppose the bill, Layton told the Star Thursday.

“I think that it is time for us to take a firm position,” Layton said. “To propose that we eliminate environmental assessments for major energy projects with what we’re seeing going on in the Gulf (of Mexico) is madness.”

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Popularity: 3% [?]

OTTAWA — NDP leader Jack Layton plans to lay out his political future Friday at a news conference in Toronto at 2:00 p.m.

Mr. Layton’s office issued an announcement saying he would “make an announcement about his personal status and his immediate future as NDP leader.”

According to CBC reports, Mr. Layton has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. According to NDP sources Mr. Layton’s cancer is treatable but may require time away and rest.

His role as leader of that party remains unclear. But according to sources he will not be running for Mayor of Toronto, a race that some speculated he would join.

[Source]

Updates:

3:03 pm EST, February 5th, 2010 — Layton press conference comments

Popularity: 8% [?]

OTTAWA — Does Jack Layton want an election?

Last spring, it certainly seemed that way. As his caucus voted against the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in one confidence vote after another, Mr. Layton and the NDP taunted Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals for propping up the Tories.

They even took out radio ads that challenged Mr. Ignatieff to “take a stand” and defeat the government.

But now, as MPs prepare to return to the House of Commons Monday and with the Liberal declaration that they will no longer support the Tories and will indeed push for an election at the first opportunity, Mr. Layton’s springtime ardour to “stand up” to Mr. Harper has changed.

“I think some Canadians are going to be looking for a new direction,” Mr. Layton said in an interview with Canwest News Service and Global National. “There’s two ways we can get it: either by Mr. Mr. Harper working with other parties to establish a new approach on some key issues — that’s what we’re offering — or by rattling the cages and trying to take us off into an election.”

Mr. Layton has been here before, ready to “offer” a prime minister with a minority government the chance to continue governing.

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Updates:

4:29 pm EDT, September 12th, 2009 — Fall election not inevitable, Layton says

Popularity: 16% [?]

Jack Layton says he won’t force a confidence vote in the House of Commons in the final weeks of the current Parliamentary session, but he is prepared to face the electorate should the Liberals choose to bring down the Conservative government.

Layton reiterated Sunday that his goals for the next few weeks include getting an NDP EI reform bill passed and changing the Canada Pension Plan before MPs go to their home ridings for the summer.

“Our intention is to use the remaining weeks to try to get some action on these issues in the House of Commons,” Layton said during an interview on CTV’s Question Period. “We won’t be moving a confidence motion. We’re going to try to move motions that get results for people.”

The NDP has called for a range of CPP reforms, including protection for public sector pensions and more oversight for the investment practices of CPP fund managers.

The party also wants a number of EI reforms, including reducing the number of hours worked to qualify, extending benefits to self-employed workers and eliminating waiting periods.

The party’s EI reform bill will be tabled in the House on June 10.

Layton said rather than try to bring down the government over the issue, he is willing to accept amendments to the legislation from the other parties.

“I don’t think Canadians would want us to (force an election),” Layton said.

“What they would want us to do is get their pensions protected, get the EI system fixed. So that’s exactly what we’ve been doing and we’ll continue to do that. As to what the other parties will do, they will have to make up their own minds. We’re prepared for an election if it comes to it.”

[Source]

Notes:

“And that ends that.” 

Come back in the fall for more political brinkmanship.

Popularity: 13% [?]