On cooperation

So much for the Libs' false attempts to claim that it's the NDP standing in the way of progressive cooperation. Blogging Horse points out that the NDP attempted to work out an agreed opposition motion on Afghanistan, both through party-to-party negotiations and through a proposed amendment. And it's the Libs who utterly refused - preferring their ill-advised attempt to corner the NDP over any attempt to work together.

Unfortunately, it looks like the new motion forthcoming from the NDP will now be targeted toward leaving no doubt about the NDP's current position, rather than winning support from the Libs and the Bloc.

But hopefully it isn't too late for the NDP to instead put forward on its own the compromise which presumably neither the Libs nor the Bloc would dare vote against directly - i.e. "withdrawal by or before February 2009", without any explicit approval or disapproval of the mission in the meantime. Which would put the Libs in an equally tight spot politically as the apparently-planned motion - while at the same time both sending Harper a clear signal that the Kandahar mission needs to be wound down, and building the NDP's credentials as the party able to build consensus against the Cons.