The media have noticed Jack Layton and the NDP. Ever since Layton suggested he would vote for the budget if the Liberals agreed to drop $4.7 billion in tax breaks for corporations and instead, spend the money on health, the cities and the environment, the NDP is newsworthy.

The prime minister decided to meet with the leader of the fourth party in the House of Commons and it got big coverage. While Layton agreed to see Paul Martin about the budget, he withheld judgment about how his party would vote on any motion of non-confidence focusing on the Gomery inquiry moved by the Conservatives.

With Layton announcing an offer from Martin on budgetary spending he could accept, the news is no longer just that the NDP is making news. The news is that the NDP has shifted the political dynamic.

Because the NDP has agreed to co-operate with the Liberals, that could affect whether or not we have a June election. The main Ottawa question is: have the Liberals lost the confidence of the House of Commons? By inserting his party into the story line, Layton has given himself an opportunity to stand for the kind of Canada the NDP wants to see.

Tom d’Aquino of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives was quick to decry any tampering with the corporate tax goodies. Canadian corporations need to be able to compete with India and China, as Paul Martin has pointed out, he cried.

Liberal strategist John Duffy recently told The Globe and Mail the Liberals were governing by the numbers. The public wants health care, the Kyoto Accord and early childhood education; the Liberals will deliver. The corporate élite wants missile defence, North American big bang integration and tax cuts; therefore, according to Duffy, the Liberals make themselves unpopular with corporations and with the corporate media.

It is clear that corporate types dominate the Liberal Party in Ottawa, just as they did the Conservative Party of Brian Mulroney, and would the Conservative Party of Stephen Harper. But the Liberals are a political party first and foremost, and they want to avoid defeat, so they watch the numbers very closely. It would be a mistake to assume they will commit suicide for Tom d’Aquino.

Layton wants the public to see that the Liberal Party is a corporate party, helping out corporations, but he has made the right move in showing Canadians a small party matters in a minority parliament.

The NDP should take the newfound interest in what they have to say a step further, and propose a parliamentary coalition with the Liberals, the three independent MPs and any others who wish to support them, along the following lines:

  • We are ready to make parliament work to serve the Canadian people.
  • We need to make investments in the future; let’s draw up an agreed list, starting with a national child care plan.
  • Planning for a green Canada needs a national effort unlike any ever seen in our vast fragmented country. Let this minority parliament establish a blueprint, or failing that, set out the points of difference for debate when the election happens.

An NDP/Liberal parliamentary coalition, why not?

Duncan Cameron

Duncan Cameron

Born in Victoria B.C. in 1944, Duncan now lives in Vancouver. Following graduation from the University of Alberta he joined the Department of Finance (Ottawa) in 1966 and was financial advisor to the...