The Canadian National Newspaper: Editorial newspaper

The creation of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961 was critically inspired by the Rev. Tommy Douglas. When the NDP was created, that federal political party inherited the political legacy of human rights, social justice, and universal public healthcare, that Tommy Douglas had championed, as Premier of Saskatchewan.

Today's NDP has many sincere grassroots activists in diverse areas. Unfortunately, however, it is apparent, that the higher that one goes up on the NDP administrative ladder, the more one is likely to encounter groups of individuals who are far from the idealism of its grassroots. It is the apparent mentality of this rather reactionary and self-absorbed group, led by Mr. Layton, that is responsible for the 2006 Federal Election that led to Harper's Conservative minority government.

Sure, Jack Layton will be the first to point to "Liberal corruption". However, today's NDP, including its former provincial government counterparts in British Columbia and Ontario were well known for corruption. This is again a far cry from Tommy Douglas' leadership. Indeed, Bob Rae's NDP government, for example, had reportedly awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funding to someone in Ottawa who just happened to be a prominent member of the NDP.

It is apparent that the elites of Jack Layton's NDP are concerned not foremost about idealism, like their grassroots constituencies. Rather, it appears that Jack Layton's NDP is principally concerned about the venal pursuit and conservation of their own power. The substantive apparent reason that Jack Layton triggered off the 2006 Federal election was that he, and the NDP leadership clique that he confers with, thought that the NDP would gain a few seats by triggering of the last Federal Election. And, hurray for Jack Layton, his strategy paid-off, and he and his clique could use their "victory" to further secure their power. Jack Layton deserves another congrats for getting his wife Olivia Chow, finally elected in Trinity-Spadina. However, it is further apparent that safeguarding the kind of Canada that Tommy Douglas sought to defend, was furthest from the minds of Jack Layton's NDP.

And now, Jack Layton has the nerve to present his feeble complaints about "wanting debate" in the House of Commons, concerning Stephen Harper's apparent militaristic agenda.

Layton elaborates that "I personally believe that hearing from the leadership of our armed forces on the work that they're doing; our Department of Foreign Affairs and other departments that are engaged in Afghanistan in the various aspects of the missions there; that this will be very important for all Canadians and for all parliamentarians."

While Tommy Douglas sought to bring together Canadians in a passionate public rallying for progressive vision of Canada, in the face of a significant uphill battle against U.S. multinational lobbyists, what is Jack Layton's NDP leadership clique doing? Collecting their parliamentary salaries, while Canada's one-tier universal public healthcare system is being destroyed by Stephen Harper.

Would Tommy Douglas have triggered off a Federal Election, if he has a minority partnership with the Liberals, and thought that such an election would lead to a Stephen Harper type government? Would David Lewis who propped up Trudeau's Liberal government in the early 1970's, have triggered off such an election? Very likely, not. However, this breed of NDP idealistic leadership has been replaced by the conservative political culture of transnational union-elite agendas.

You may have heard on the news after a strike, complaints from union members, about having been 'sold-out by their leaders. Well, it is the mentality of these union elites, which has transformed the NDP from its idealistic roots, into a political party governed by apparent self-serving elites. What Jack Layton's NDP does, is sell an image of the NDP, though salesperson-like pitches that include, the need to redress "child poverty", homelessness, and helping "the average worker", that they don't apparently really give a damn about.

It is apparent, from the scandalous record of former Ontario Premier Bob Rae, to current Toronto Mayor Miller that ignores policies associated with worsening economic disparity, that today's NDP, has sold out the principled legacy of Tommy Douglas.

Take for example, Ed Broadbent, former Ottawa-Centre MP, who was the greatest adversary of the patronage scheming of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in the mid to late-1980's.

Yet, at the first opportunity, he took the first patronage opportunity that Brian Mulroney presented to him. Broadbent accepted Mulroney's patronage appointment in 1990 to the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development .

In 1988, Broadbent also vowed to "use House rules to defeat Free Trade". Yet, in 2005, as Canada, (along with the quality-of-living of the average Canadian worker), continues to be destroyed by "Free Trade", he, (and the rest of his fellow NDP elites, including Jack Layton) continue to be completely jaded and silent on matters pertinent.

As Stephen Harper Conservatives reports to their Big Business handlers (primarily based South of the Border), Jack Layton's NDP reports to "Big Union" interests associated with the U.S. -Canada Auto Pact (and other corresponding arrangements), which form an integral part of the U.S. Big Business context of "Free Trade". Jack Layton's NDP was not apparently concerned about triggering-off the election of a Conservative government, as they indicated during our editorial interviews with their leadership, because both Conservatives and NDP elites share an affinity to each other in their apparent joint venal pursuit of power rather than the kind of principles that Tommy Douglas' NDP passionately defended.

While Tommy Douglas sought to bring together Canadians who share socially progressive values into a 'Common Front' which was called the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), Jack Layton NDP has co-opted and sabotaged the development of such Common Fronts.

These include the New Politics Initiative (NPI) to Mel Hurtig's efforts to revive the creation of a Canadian Nationalistic Party that he first attempted in the early 1990's, to Paul Hellyer's and supporters of David Orchard efforts to forge a 'One Big Party' that would unite politically progressive political parties. In a similar vein, the CCF, that had been co-founded by the Rev. Tommy Douglas, had been a bringing together of farmers, labour communities, and "social democrats".

So, while Stephen Harper has been working toward "uniting the right", Jack Layton's NDP systematically undermined the development of a rejuvenated socially progressive coalition. The NDP and its affiliates trade union elites apparently feared losing their respective job titles/positions in a new political party entity.

If these progressive political efforts, with a particular emphasis on the NPI, had been supported, rather than undermined by NDP elites, Canadians might not have had to endure the sabotaging of Canada's universal healthcare system by Harper's neo-conservative agenda.

Arguably, activists and other progressive-minded Canadians would be better served to abandon the essentially venal and conservative mentality of the NDP, in favour of rejuvenated political party. The leadership of such a political party may wish to consider appreciating the spiritual values which had inspired Tommy Douglas, as a Great Canadian. The joining of the former CCF, with the labour union movement, has failed to sustain the progressive outcomes that Tommy Douglas had tirelessly championed in his political life.