How High the Moon?

I don’t usually blog about politics directly. I am a student of Jewish culture, not of Canadian politics, and I am leery about putting too many of my bits out there. However, I must admit that this election is becoming more and more exciting for me, and has been taking up more and more of my recent interest. In fact, I find it increasingly difficult, as the Federal election approaches (January 23rd), to focus on anything else. My old news-junkie ways have returned.


And I make no bones over my support of the New Democrat Party of Canada (NDP). They are not only the strongest alternative choice; I feel that, in respect to my interests, the NDP are the strongest choice. Period. Full stop. With an environmental platform that is reasonable, a dedication to education and health care, and a socially progressive attitude to such things as gay rights (which shouldn’t even be a question for reasonable people any more- it’s a new millennium for Pete’s sake!), the NDP represents my views and my needs as a Canadian.



That is why I will be proud to cast my vote for Jack and the K-W NDP candidate in my riding, Edwin Laryea. Both men are well educated and sensitive to the issues that matter to me, in a way that I feel neither the Conservatives (a.k.a. the former Reform) or the Liberals (a party I supported ten years ago) are.

A week ago I was terrified. The polls predicted not only a Conservative win, but a Conservative Majority. My heart raced with horror at this thought. The party that Bush’s American neo-Con Evangelist friends prayed for may soon be in charge of our country! Last week, I would have said that there could be nothing worse for Canada or Canadians, and, at the prospect of a neo-Con North America, I was seriously considering emigrating! To where? Who knows…? Somewhere where Harper wasn’t in control, that’s all I knew.

But now, as the election approaches, I go through fluctuations of emotion. Suddenly, I am taken by a surge of optimism that may earn the ridicule of many. Sure, we may be stuck with a Conservative government… But what if we could manage an NDP Opposition…?

Suddenly, after nearly a decade of supporting a party that is widely regarded as “the conscience of Canada,” but never as its possible leader, and facing voting every election for folks who may go and sit in Parliament, but votes that would never lead to a “Right Honourable Prime Minister…”, I am starting to have major aspirations for our dear NDP. Don’t laugh, but if I can never say “Right Honourable Prime Minister Jack Layton,” I am getting pretty excited about the prospect of “The Honourable Jack Layton, Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition”…

Pretty damned excited, actually.

The recent poll results indicate that the NDP (17%) have been gaining slightly, and are now only 7% behind the poor Libs (round about 24%), and both are being pulverized by the Blue Menace (at somewhere around a horrifying 40%). For once, there is no need for NDP supporters to weasel out and vote Red just to “keep out the neo-Con hordes.”

This election calls for honest voting. Let the Libs vote Lib. Let the truly-conservative vote for the Conservatives (notice that they have removed the “Progressive” from their name? Horrifying.) And, now let the Democrats vote for the NDP.

And then let the weirdies who are voting Conservative just to protest against the so-called “Liberal Sense of Entitlement” place their vote with the NDP. (OK, so you want to punish the Libs. Fine. But why do you want to punish the rest of us?)

So, if it could pan out that the NDP win some votes naturally, regain their fraidy-cat supporters who are voting Liberal, and get some of those protest voters in, then it is possible that we could see an NDP opposition. As Toronto’s NOW magazine has urged, it is time “to think of (the NDP) not just as this country's conscience but as one day being its government.”


Just think of an NDP opposition… Think of my Jack standing tall, earnest, adorable and yappy with enthusiasm against the Blue Menace. Just think of it! I feel confident that Jack would protect our health care, and that he would not budge on same-sex marriage rights. Unlike the Liberals, who may be too far centre to adequately balance the Conservatives, the NDP would bring humanity and concern to the Opposition chair. They may be the only party that can save us from Harper’s vision of “every family for itself.”

That is why Jack will not only get my vote this year, but he also has my excitement. There is a change in Canada these days, but it doesn’t have to be all bad.

NDP supporters can be said to have more optimism than realism. Certainly, we vote with our ethics, not just to be part of a winning side. However, I urge Canada to see the NDP as a viable opposition… And then maybe we can all still win.

(Other posts about Jumpin' Jack Layton)