It Won't Last

Verdict: Civility is boring. We want blood. I give it a week until John Baird drops his pants and tells the opposition to witness his foreign policy.

Also, The Sun has either shopped this photo out of bias so Mr. Layton looks like a pinhead, or he is one. Whatever.

Jack Layton To Seniors

...in your name shall I cave.

Finally, NDP Begins To Question Jack Layton's Leadership

...on Bill C-391:

Manitoba NDP MP Jim Maloway said he was not consulted by Layton or anyone else on the proposed bill.
"I got a heads-up on Saturday that there would be announcement by the leader Monday morning on the gun registry," said Maloway.

Regardless, said Maloway, he still plans to vote with Hoeppner.

"Nothing there changes my view on the long-gun registry," said Maloway.

He also said Layton's proposal is too little too late.

"This bill just went through committee last spring," said Maloway. "Where were all these amendments at the committee?"

If you read closely here, it sounds as though Maloway is admitting that Layton's new bill will not derail the vote on C-391. Furthermore, read between the lines and it sounds like Maloway is saying that he will not co-operate in the bringing forward of Jack's new "compromise" bill. Looks like the NDP leader has lost control of the debate and his own caucus.

So, is his gun registry stance Jack Layton's worst political mistake in a career that hasn't seen too many of them?

Da Wymman O' Canada: We Supported Jack Layton

...and all we got was this lousy ribbon.

Pity when your legacy on gun control winds up being a half's penny worth of cheap fabric.

Been There, Done That

Abstaining, not showing up, voting with...they all amount to the same thing and you will all feel like crap in the end...as though you had betrayed an ideal for the most tawdry of reasons. So go for it.

And as for the new ad. Well, at least Iggy could afford some foliage in the background.

Next Week, Jack And Gilles Will Receive Their Poison Pill

...and it will be a suppository.

Liberals stay strong. It is the job of the official opposition to oppose. Besides, Jack will almost certainly prove most suppliant.

Or Gilles will. I like these pictures of Gilles. They show him recieving earlier poison pills.

Harper Government Prepares To Hike Payroll Tax

Because that's what "overcollecting" the payroll tax amounts to. Certainly the effect is identical to a tax hike:

“If they're looking at reducing the deficit by increasing the premiums...it will slow down the hiring process,” Mr. [Jason] Myers [president of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters] said.

In fact, it appears that Jim Flaherty will rely almost entirely on an increase in EI premiums to bring the country out of its current deficit position. That's it. There's nothing else in Thursdays economic update that could be accurately described as an element in some deficit reduction plan.

Interesting to see the NDP response to this going forward. Jack Layton seems willing to wear the purple sweater, to "make parliament work", as they say, in exchange for some tiny little political bone related to changes in the EI system. An increase to the payroll tax was precisely not what he had in mind.

More NDP Weakness

From Tory whip Jay Hill:

For the second time in a year, Mr. Ignatieff has thrown Jack Layton a curve ball. First Mr. Ignatieff, who had signed-up for a Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition just days after Canadians returned our Conservative Government to power with a stronger mandate, reneged on the deal. Now, Mr. Ignatieff has called Mr. Layton’s election bluff.

Back in June when the Liberals were ducking Parliamentary votes to avoid an election they didn’t have the money to fight, Mr. Layton could boast he would never support the Conservative Government. He even bragged that the NDP voted against us in 79 consecutive confidence motions in the House.

In August following a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a defiant Mr. Layton declared, “The NDP would be the least likely of the political parties to support the Conservatives in office.”

Yet when Mr. Ignatieff suddenly put the election trigger in his hands in early September, Mr. Layton, who is typically the first politician to throw himself in front of a television camera, went into hiding for two days! He sent his deputy leader, Thomas Muclair to deliver an olive branch to our Conservative government, suggesting the NDP would work with us on a case-by-case basis.

On one hand, the NDP are showing poorly in the polls and in their bank balance so Mr. Layton is hedging his bets by now pretending to be conciliatory and cooperative in Parliament. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to waste a rare opportunity for himself and the NDP to be relevant in Canadian politics. So he’s also trying to play the role of ‘power-broker’ by echoing Mr. Ignatieff’s election threats.

Meanwhile, Western Arctic NDP MP Dennis Bevington is willing to don the NDP/CPoC purple sweater of alliance:

While Harper wrote off the idea of working with the NDP shortly after Ignatieff made his comments, Bevington said a coalition was "plausible."

"We didn't support them in their original budget - the Liberals did. The arrangement was between the Liberals and the Conservatives. The Liberals have abandoned that arrangement," he said. "That doesn't mean that we have to have an election now. Prime Minister Harper needs to give a little room to some of the things that we see, or the Bloc see, that are correct. Those are things that he has to do."

If Harper is willing to make compromises, his government will survive, Bevington said.

"If he simply says, 'Well, I'm going to do what I want to do,' then it will be a very difficult situation."

Ah, but difficult for whom, Mr. Bevington, difficult for whom?

Iggy's Face Shines With Transplendent Glory

He wins an opposition day in late Sept....another chance to bring down the gov. if his advisers give him the election go call.

All joking and expressions of misplaced idealism aside, this looks like a fine outcome to me. Iggy comes across looking serious and, at times, damned sexxxy. Meanwhile Jack Layton has been observed talking to animals. Not too Prime Ministerial, Jack.