Angry in the Great White North

You need a subscription to see the column online, but here is the interesting bit appearing near the end. Jack Layton has taken on the job of Foreign Affairs minister:

The Greens have risen to about 10 per cent in popularity, enough to be a force. An NDP insider who has done the numbers says that about half the Green support comes from NDP backers. If that holds, it will mean a loss of at least 5 per cent of the popular vote for the Layton gang in the next election.

Then there is the Liberal Party, which is perceived as being more on the left under Stephane Dion's greeny ways than it has been previously.

So isn't the NDP being squeezed like a lime? Mr. Layton hesitates. "We are the party that gets people elected on the left and we are going to stay focused on that," he says measuredly.

He wants the party to lead the way on the issue of the Afghan war, which he wants ended, and what he terms the country's prosperity gap. On the war, he says he is starting to contact leaders of the left in the G8 and in dozens of other countries. "I want to open up the dialogue and see what that can do. Just looking in at ourselves is not enough."

So he wants Canada to quit Afghanistan, and to make that happen, he's calling up the leaders of dozens of countries. He wants to know what that, that is, the dialogue between Jack Layton and these foreign leaders and what comes of that dialogue, can do to change the will of Canada's parliament.

What the...?!

What is he telling them? Does he tell Jacques Chirac of France that Stephen Harper is anti-French? Does he tell King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia that Stephen Harper is in the pocket of Jewish interests? Does he tell Syrian president Bashar al-Assad what he knows of Canadian government plans for the troops in Afghanistan?

And what advice are these leaders giving Jack Layton? Are they encouraging him to work even harder to get Canada out of Afghanistan? Are they offering to help? Is Jack Layton accepting their advice and their help?

Some people just can't be trusted with a phone capable of making international calls.

Now has Jack Layton done something illegal? I'm not sure. Here is what the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Act says about the duty of the Minister of Foreign Affairs:

(2) In exercising his powers and carrying out his duties and functions under this Act, the Minister shall

(a) conduct all diplomatic and consular relations on behalf of Canada;

(b) conduct all official communication between the Government of Canada and the government of any other country and between the Government of Canada and any international organization;

Now Jack Layton is not a member of government, but of the opposition. That subtlety of the Westminister System might be lost on heads of government not working under that system, so who knows what they think.

I mean if I got a phone call from the Leader of Canada's Opposition saying that the government of Canada must be compelled into pulling out the troops....what's that?

Oh right, Stephane Dion is the Leader of the Opposition. He is by virtue of leading the second largest party in Canada's parliament. Jack Layton's NDP came in third...no wait, fourth place.

Right.

Maybe Stephane Dion and Gilles Duceppe should take Jack Layton aside and remind him of this fact before he starts presenting his status as leader of the NDP in Canada's parliament to foreign leaders as something that amounts to much.

But then because of the current seat numbers in this minority government, the NDP can prop up Stephen Harper's government against a combined Liberal-Bloc-Independent vote. I wonder if Jack Layton is mentioning that, too, to foreign leaders. Push hard against Stephen Harper's policies to force it to a vote, and I'll make sure the government falls.