Hargrove vs. Layton – Round 3?

March 31, 2009 · Posted in News, Personalities, Policy 

The Hill Times is reporting that all is not well with Canada’s New Democrats.

Hargrove says: “Jack as a leader has developed a hell of a profile for himself, but I don’t believe he’s developed a profile for the party on the issues that are critical to Canadian families.”

Now, I don’t always agree with Buzz. But this time, I have to agree (with the statement above). In fact, I more or less said the exact same thing 10 days ago.

Seriously. The NDP website is the best party website out there (and it pains me to say that). (I was just with a bunch of web designers yesterday who agreed that “orange” is the new “green”, and had to snicker a bit when I thought of the political implications.)

Unfortunately (or, fortunately for some), they really don’t have anything useful to say. It’s completely, 100% irrelevant. The kids like the website design, but the message sounds stupid.

Is this entirely Jack’s fault?  Not so much.  But the NDP could’ve turned a corner if they picked a leader who could reform the party and policy a bit (like Bill Blaikie or Lorne Nystrom), rather than trying so hard to reform the image of the old message to make it more hip for the kids.

As a libertarian Conservative, it doesn’t matter too much to me. But for democracy and the greater Canadian political debate, Jack Layton’s leadership has contributed very little.

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Comments

  • Sunnyside Avenger

    Well, Jack Layton days as Captain are numbered. Seems our MP Paul Dewar is making it less and less a secret he believes he would be a better leader than Jack. So far he has 6 to 8 MP’s ready to drink the kool-aid with him.
    And here I thought it was only the Liberals sold knives in bulk.

  • Ronnie

    Layton’s not a leader, he’s a putz. How many elections can one guy lose before being shown the door??

  • Colin

    Yeah, he should go back to selling those Video Professor “How to use Ebay” CD’s on the TV spots. He gave those away for free, but Canadians would never elect the NDP as a majority if they paid us (with our own money).
    Why do you think Bob Rae turned Red.