Like Hell, It's Not About You!

Nice try, Jack. For the benefit of those who missed it, here is part of his piece in The Star:

Jack Layton
Leader of the New Democratic Party

It's not about us. That's my mantra when I have to make a tough political decision because it can be so easy to succumb to decision paralysis if the focus is inward: What will the other parties do? Will our supporters agree? Will a decision cause rifts? Can it be communicated clearly? Will we be pummelled by the pundits?

But it isn't about us. It's about the people who elected us. So, when discussing our recent decision to support Stephen Harper's offer to improve employment insurance benefits in response to our call for action, I kept turning my mind to the Canadians I met during my recent travels across the country.

These are people for whom the recession is not over. There was the young woman at Queen's University who told me her dad had lost his job in the forestry industry. The family had scraped and borrowed to get her back into school for the fall semester.

Or the mid-level manager I met in Quebec City who had been laid off after 16 years. She pleaded with me to support the EI changes that would give her an additional 20 weeks of employment insurance. At her age, she said, finding a new job is going to be a long, hard struggle.

Or the hundreds of proud miners in Sudbury I met after they had been laid off. What do you tell a 60-year-old man who has lost his job in an industry with an uncertain future?

I have also heard many similar stories from my neighbours and friends here in Toronto, as plants have closed and businesses small and large have downsized. Multiply these stories with those my caucus colleagues are telling me. More than 1.6 million Canadians are now unemployed. Another 200,000 are expected to lose their jobs before this coming winter is over. And the epicentre of the job losses is right here in Ontario.

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Do I think that all of the above was factored into the NDP's decision? Yes I do. But none of Jack's points were the overriding concern. They aren't stupid -- they saw that they would take a drubbing in the next election and that perhaps fifteen to twenty caucus members would not be returning to Ottawa. It's an open secret in Ottawa that many of those same MPs need to get at least another year under their belt to qualify for a full parliamentary pension. For them to pretend that we are living in the Land Of Oz and that this political reality had absolutely no weight in their internal deliberations is beyond ludicrous.

As I've said before, Jack is going to lose seats. He had a choice to support the Liberals and trim his losses or take another route. By propping up the Harper government, he all but guarantees that the NDP will be all but decimated when we finally go to the polls. Not exactly smart thinking Jack.