NDP Day 1: Populist Bullshit, But Otherwise Not Bad

As Canadians, we all desire that every single senior be lifted out of poverty, just as we wish mothers to be free...everywhere...even in M'banqui.  Of course, as leader of the official opposition, Jack Layton can't do diddley about either of these problems.  But suggesting concrete action on a manageable issue was never the point.  What was the point?  Ms. O'Malley had it pegged correctly:

...which is to say Jack and Co. are taking this "government in waiting" thing right over the top.  Its all bluster, and the notion that the NDP can, for example, choose or not choose an occasion to "bring down" the Harper government, as Mr. Layton has suggested on a previous occasion, is pure madness.  But the rhetoric isn't aimed at the cynical or the knowledgeable; its meant to appear in bits and pieces on the tv screens of the nation and make folks who are otherwise more interested in the hockey game think for one brief instant that this Jack Layton fellow might be PM material after all.  And as crude theater, I suspect it will be effective.

But not for very long.  As soon as the wheels of parliament start turning, as soon as legislation begins to pass, the limits of NDP influence will become swiftly apparent.  Presumably, Mr. Layton will have a speech for that occasion as well.

h/t