James Laxer and the NDP
Posted by Paul Chislett on April 28, 2007
Further to my last post, James Laxer has written an excellent critique supporting the NDP, on his blog . His approach is especially interesting because he points to the fact that Tony Blair will soon be leaving office and his successor will likely be faced with withdrawing British troops form Iraq, and,possibly, Afghanistan, although I’m not too sure the British would pull out of Afghanistan. Also, Laxer makes it clear that internationally, some kind of peace process will likely begin regarding Afghanistan before 2009 and significantly, Bush is at war with only 29% support in the polls – so how long can Canadian war-mongering continue?
The point to all of this is that Layton and the NDP are on the correct side of the issue, as well as in their support for Kyoto and the environment. But as local election issues, both these critically important and symbolic issues – war and environmental degradation – will not be seen as something a local NDP candidate can run on. Most people are not touched by the war or environmental degradation – yet- and the irony is such that if we don’t take war and over-consumption seriously, then we ignore it at our children’s peril. The real enemies of Canadians are greed, class warfare and environmental degradation – NOT terrorists!
