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NDP could hold balance of power; Focuses on help for natives
OTTAWAJack Layton urged Canadians to elect as many New Democrats to Parliament as possible so the party could play "a strong central role in government." Though the phrase seems to indicate an acknowledgment that the party won't form the next government, Layton wouldn't say so yesterday, nor would he say whether he would support a Conservative minority government. "That's completely up to Canadians to decide on the shape of the Parliament." "Whether it's a mandate as government, holding the balance of power or a strong opposition, we will pursue the interests of Canadians," he said. "Give the NDP that central role and we'll make life better for you." When asked if he would bring down a government that tried to kill the Kyoto Protocol, Layton told reporters only that the party would strive to ensure the agreement to cut greenhouse gases is implemented, adding that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives have demonstrated the will to do so. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has said he would pull Canada out of the protocol but would fight smog with a Clean Air Act. Layton, 53, was speaking at a campaign breakfast at an Ottawa deli, where he joked about the leaders' debate Tuesday that saw him go after Liberal Leader Paul Martin, a longtime minister of finance, over issues such as ballistic missile defence and health care. "I think my favourite moment was when Paul Martin said that it might be finally time to deal with the health-care waiting lists. He might want to take that up with whoever was finance minister for the past decade." Layton said the Conservatives are hiding their agenda on social issues. "Every Conservative candidate is now wearing a strip of duct tape across their mouth, labelled, `Do not open until June 29th,'" he said, to hollers from the large crowd. Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, expected by many to win Ottawa Centre, was at the event. He said he hasn't been more excited about the party's prospects since 1988 when the NDP had its best showing with 43 seats. "We're really humming," he said. "I'm semi-ecstatic." Broadbent said Layton was right to attack Martin on his record as a service-cutting finance minister in the 1990s and Harper as taking Canada further down that road. He said Layton's performance in the debate will energize the campaign, particularly in about 60 ridings in which the NDP is first or second in its own polls. Still, Broadbent's seat is likely the only one the party can hope to win in Ottawa. Tellingly, Broadbent and Monia Mazigh wife of Maher Arar, the Canadian who was deported and says he was tortured in a Syrian prison were the only candidates Layton introduced by their full names. Later in the day, Layton attended an aboriginal drumming ceremony in Winnipeg, honouring the party and Winnipeg incumbent Pat Martin for his 26-hour filibuster of the First Nations Governance Act, put forward in 2002 by the government of then prime minister Jean Chrétien. The act, which did not pass, was criticized by native leaders who said they weren't consulted enough and that the act meant more government interference into its governance and financial affairs. Layton applauded Pat Martin, who attended the ceremony along with local incumbent Judy Wasylycia-Leis, calling his stalling of the bill "among the proudest 26 hours" in the history of the NDP and of Parliament. Martin is battling to win Winnipeg Centre against a popular Liberal community activist David Northcott. Because of riding redistribution, Wasylycia-Leis is also fighting a prominent Liberal, incumbent Rey Pagtakhan, minister of Western economic diversification in Martin's cabinet. Layton said the NDP, if elected, would convene a first ministers' conference that would be attended by aboriginal leaders to discuss the long-shelved Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, whose recommendations have been pushed by many of the community's leaders since the report was written in 1996.
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