Jack Layton has been dealing with Harper, as leader of a party, for far longer than Ignatieff has, and in my view this longer exposure by Layton has helped him make a more correct assessment of the Tory prime minister than Ignatieff appears to have made.
This exposure is why Layton believes the NDP should vote against the coming Harper budget:
“New Democrat Leader Jack Layton says his party is going to vote against the budget.
Layton told a party caucus retreat today that the coalition that arose from the parliamentary crisis last fall has some "bold but very practical approaches" that should be put into action.
"But the coalition will only come into being if all opposition parties take the courageous stand to stand up to (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper at this critical time after all he's done," he said. "If the Liberals decide to support Mr. Harper's budget they should know this - they will be doing it alone."
Layton said Harper should not be trusted to handle the economic crisis.
But then after his speech, Layton seemed to leave room for his party to support the budget if Harper showed a change of heart.
"It would take some demonstration by Mr. Harper that we can trust him now," Layton told reporters. "We didn't have confidence in him seven weeks ago and he has refused to deliver on the things that he's put in previous budgets when he didn't' really agree with them, like infrastructure spending.
"He would say things in budgets that he would then simply turn around and ignore. I don't know where he can come up with that kind of a demonstration," Layton said. "I've lost confidence in Mr. Harper's administration and that's of course going to make it very difficult for us when it comes to the budget."”
The Tory reaction during the past few years, when they believed they had the Liberals on the ropes and when Dion was forced dozens of times to hold his nose and back the Tory government in the House, as well as Harper’s attack on the public funding of the parties during elections, on women’s equity rights, and on the public sector unions, all support the Layton belief that this is not a man you can trust, let alone have confidence in his ability to provide proper leadership to the country during the coming harsh recession.
Our politicians are underestimating the impact the recession will shortly have on Canada; those Canadians who are being laid off each day have a far better appreciation of what is really happening.
In times of peril, we need a leader of the country who can be trusted to be fair, to deal on an even basis, who appreciates the problems coming our way, and who is prepared to put aside rigid ideological reliance on the wisdom of free markets and small governments, and actually help Canadians who lose their jobs, their homes and their futures.
In my view, Layton is right to have concluded that Harper is not that man, and should be replaced as prime minister.
