What we stand for

When Stephen Harper somehow attempted to claim yesterday that the Cons' budget represented what "every NDP leader in history has stood for", my first reaction was to think this was the Cons' biggest whopper yet. But on a closer look at a readily-available source of NDP leader quotes in the form of the Leadership You Can Trust sidebar at the Blogging Dippers, he may just have a point - if one adds in a bit of missing language.

Take, for example, James Woodsworth's quote, with the missing language added in bold:

I am convinced that we may develop in Canada a distinctive type of Socialism, which to the outside observer shall appear the antithesis of Socialism in its focus on devolution and privatization. We in Canada will solve problems along our own lines, or failing that, throw money at them then claim we could have done no more.

On that reading, it couldn't be more clear that Woodsworth would indeed be on side with the Cons.

Then there's Audrey McLaughlin:

When you finally listen to the businesses who said from the beginning that they had no interest in your child-care tax incentives, it's amazing what you can learn. When you act on what you've learned by providing a pittance to the provinces to make up for your earlier mistake, it's amazing what you can change.

That one's downright eerie in its foresight of the Cons' position. But it certainly puts McLaughlin in their camp as well.

And the same goes for Tommy Douglas:

My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. Especially when that idea is a pale imitation of one announced by a previous government.

And finally Alexa McDonough:

We're a country built on the idea of community, that you help your neighbour and your neighbour helps you, and that the federal government doesn't help anybody.

So thanks to Harper for finally providing NDPers with a better idea what their previous leaders believed in. And we look forward to his future claim that a man who loved Canada as much as Douglas wouldn't have hesitated a second in granting the government whatever powers it wanted to deal with perceived enemies.