NDP - American Mayor Sympathisers or Noble Environmentalists?

Last week, Jack Layton, leader of the Canadian NDP, took some Alberta NDP candidates and a whack of journalists on a 5,000 foot plane ride over the oil sands in Northern Alberta. It was quite the stunt. In fact, I'm surprised his plane didn't do a loop-the-loop just to finish it off.


The reason for Jack's 'press conference' was a particular policy announcement, that being if the NDP win the election they will cease all further development in the oil sands until emissions are capped through his cap-and-trade proposal (well, not "his" proposal exactly, kind of borrowed from the world's other leading lefties).


I consider myself to be politically left of centre, i.e. a bit of a liberal, and I am concerned about the environment just like everyone else. I think the NDP proposal is bold (although I have to wonder at the wisdom of tut-tutting at the oil sands from the carbon-spewing comfort of a jet aircraft, not exactly known for their fuel economy or clean emissions).


Then I started to wonder whether there isn't more to this than meets the eye. Perhaps this isn't an aggressive defence of the environment but nothing more than a piece of pragmatism. Perhaps Mr. Layton has decided that he will never make it to the Prime Minister's office and is, instead, in the face of a majority Conservative government, positioning himself for a career change. As recently as June, the U.S. Conference of Mayors condemned the oil sands developments for producing approximately three times the carbon dioxide pollution per barrel as conventional oil production and proposed a motion to stop using oil that comes from the Canadian oil sands.


Could Mr Layton be thinking of a new job and putting himself out there among the mayors as a fellow detractor, kind of a "look at me! I hate the oil sands too!!)? Is Jack the next Mayor of Detroit?


Hardly. I don't see the NDP doing particularly well next month (especially if today's Canadian Press/Harris-Decima poll is anything to go by) but I'm sure Jack will never defect away from Canadian politics. If there's one thing that the NDP has by the non-oil barrel load, it's innovation, from their "kitchen-table" thinking to support for cap-and-trade to universal prescription drug coverage. Whether all this is viewed as nothing more than rhetorical gimmickry by the electorate remains to be seen. Perhaps, if the NDP keep coming up with new, radical ideas, Jack may be the next political leader to be excluded from a political debate.


Then he'll really be getting somewhere.