Once A Loser......

NDP gives off vibes of panic
April 24, 2009
Chantal Hébert
OTTAWA—For the past five years one could basically set one's watch on Jack Layton and the NDP. Come hell or high water the New Democrats were determined not to be caught dead helping the Conservatives win or keep power.
In 2004, Layton turned down overtures to strike a common front with Stephen Harper and Gilles Duceppe to topple Paul Martin's minority government over its inaugural throne speech.
When the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois tried to censure Martin over the sponsorship scandal a year and a half later, Layton struck a budget deal with the Liberals that was designed to keep their government alive.
Since 2006, the NDP has never succoured the Conservatives on a confidence vote, something that was a singular point of pride for the party, at least until this week.
In January, Layton would not even wait to read the budget before deciding to vote against it. At the time, the NDP took the extraordinary step of buying advertising to take the Liberals – a fellow opposition party – to task for supporting the minority government.
While not intellectually compelling, the NDP's course had the merit of being consistent. But now, it seems Layton is having a change of heart.
With the Liberals liable to stop propping up the government no later than the fall, he is sending signals that the New Democrats could be amenable to replacing them as the Conservatives' dance partner.
Only fools don't change their minds. Still, it was less than three months ago that Layton was arguing the Conservatives absolutely could not be trusted with power, especially in hard economic times.
But that was before the Liberals rebounded in the polls, giving the NDP and the Conservatives a vested interest in avoiding a snap election.
In hindsight, it should come as no surprise that pure politics would drive what looks like a fundamental shift in NDP outlook. Over the past few years, the party's sense of its role as the conscience of Parliament has become elastic.
In the last campaign, Layton was willing to toss aside decades of fighting words on inclusiveness and women participation in the political process to block Green Party Leader Elizabeth May from the election debates.
Signature NDP policies on Afghanistan and corporate tax cuts were also summarily left at the door of the coalition with the Liberals, all in the name of the greater cause of replacing the Conservatives.
It remains to be seen whether Harper turns out to be as willing as Martin to bend over backwards to extend the life of his government. When it comes to economic policy, the tolerance level of the Conservative base for extra social spending may already have been pushed to the limit.
But given the risks involved for the NDP, it is hard to read anything beyond panic in the signals the party is sending.
The sight of Layton in the role of Conservative enabler could be enough to send a fair number of New Democrat supporters to the Liberals in the next campaign, in a bid to ensure Harper is not re-elected. A similar movement in the '90s helped wipe the federal NDP off the map of Ontario for a decade.
It could also cost Layton his sole Quebec MP. Thomas Mulcair originally won Outremont against the backdrop of an exodus of Bloc supporters, up in arms over the perception that Duceppe was too close to Harper. And that was back when the Conservatives were still popular in Quebec.

Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.