Although I have been impressed with the NDP’s call for a national minimum wage, a national pharmacare program, their call for the senate to be abolished and their stance on Afghanistan, it is time for Layton to go. The NDP is stalled in the polls and have been since Harper was elected. More importantly the NDP do not seem to realize that their fortunes are tied to the Liberals and that their willingness to sacrifice their principles in hopes of political gain gives them a smaller voice. Finally, the NDP needs to be rescued from its own confused, wordy and jumbled messaging that is made all the worse by Layton’s frenetic style of delivery.
Of all the parties out there, the NDP can least afford to waste time trying pander to every single constituency. It gets but a fraction of media attention the other parties do. The party simply does not have the money or the media attention that would allow them to spend all their time and effort trying to target various subgroups and taking shots at the other parties. Talk of seniors, students, families, natives, Liberals, Conservatives Elizabeth May, George Bush… needs to be abandoned and replaced with how this or that policy benefits all Canadians. Everything else is extraneous noise. Naturally this means recommitting the party to universality, paring down the message, and abandoning the special interest stink that has enveloped the party like pig pen for a long as the party has abandoned any talk of class. A la what the NDP did the 60s, hold up what various European have achieved should serve as a model. Clarity of message and easy to understand policy is all important. 5 examples come readily to mind.
National minimum wage
A national pharmacare program based upon the one currently available in the UK
4 weeks paid vacation for all Canadians
dental care as part of health care
Universal Day Care for kids aged 1-5
Electoral reform and the war in Afghanistan is also possible subjects of discussion, but by in large the party should focus basically all of its time talking about a few core issues and hitting them again and again and again.
Of all the parties out there, the NDP can least afford to waste time trying pander to every single constituency. It gets but a fraction of media attention the other parties do. The party simply does not have the money or the media attention that would allow them to spend all their time and effort trying to target various subgroups and taking shots at the other parties. Talk of seniors, students, families, natives, Liberals, Conservatives Elizabeth May, George Bush… needs to be abandoned and replaced with how this or that policy benefits all Canadians. Everything else is extraneous noise. Naturally this means recommitting the party to universality, paring down the message, and abandoning the special interest stink that has enveloped the party like pig pen for a long as the party has abandoned any talk of class. A la what the NDP did the 60s, hold up what various European have achieved should serve as a model. Clarity of message and easy to understand policy is all important. 5 examples come readily to mind.
National minimum wage
A national pharmacare program based upon the one currently available in the UK
4 weeks paid vacation for all Canadians
dental care as part of health care
Universal Day Care for kids aged 1-5
Electoral reform and the war in Afghanistan is also possible subjects of discussion, but by in large the party should focus basically all of its time talking about a few core issues and hitting them again and again and again.
4 comments:
My sentiments exactly.
I've heard rumblings of an internal revolt. That came straight up from a party organizer in S-W Ontario.
In fact...they thought Hampton was finished as well.
Apparently there was a major meeting in the past two weeks where this came up for discussion.
Jack has been a great caretaker, but he is not a leader.
Pulling the ideas of the NDP into the Liberal party would be smart thinking.
No harm in getting them when they are down for the count.
Those leftist votes just might be the ticket back into Ottawa.
"National minimum wage
A national pharmacare program based upon the one currently available in the UK
4 weeks paid vacation for all Canadians
dental care as part of health care
Universal Day Care for kids aged 1-5"
Now that would get the Factories open in Ontario again . . .
What would you propose for minimum wage? How about $25.00 hr.
Why stop at 4 weeks vacation . . . why not 8 or 10 weeks like the teachers get?
Dental Care and Pharmicare . . . would probably work just like health care . . . imagine dying waiting for your prescription.
This agenda would make us just like France . . . who are trying to go the other way to become competitive again!!!
Old tool. You really need to travel and read more. Cheese eating surrender monkeys is so yesterday. Oh by the way, how did Iraq thing work out for you? Seriously, Old tool you must stop confusing political talking points with serious analysis.
This agenda would make us just like Norway, Denmark and Switzerland. All three countries have higher productivity rates, higher income levels, lower unemployment levels than Canada and the US.
I should have mentioned this before. In 2004 the combined support the two conservative parties dropped more than 21 points and the Liberals share of the popular vote went up only slightly (27.7 vs. 28.57). So where did that support go. Most of it went to the NDP. At the same time as Alliance/new Conservative Party lost its status as a Western protest party the Federal NDP partly regained its status as one stopped being weighed down by its provincial brethren. As a result, for the first time since the 1988 election Federal voters returned to the NDP in droves. That is just one reason why Jack Layton’s Ontariocentric attack the Liberals strategy is so hopelessly misconceived. The Grits and NDP are not battling for the same voter in most of BC. The Conservatives and NDP are.
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