Messages of unity

One of the more obvious messages put forward by the Libs since Michael Ignatieff decided to prop up the Harper Cons has been a theme of "national unity" - which has been dragged out on issues ranging from the tar sands to rural/urban relations to making excuses for his choice to torpedo the progressive coalition. But rather than ceding the terrain to Ignatieff, Jack Layton is now taking up a similar message. And there may be some significant opportunities for the NDP in developing a contrast with the Cons and Libs as to what national unity really means:

NDP Leader Jack Layton slammed Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not doing enough to stimulate the country's ailing economy Saturday, saying job losses can be reversed by investing in renewable energy, municipal infrastructure and building retrofits...

"A lot of these folks are in construction. If we had a program to renovate homes, buildings, schools, churches, offices and factories to reduce energy use, we could put a lot of construction workers to work right now." On Friday, Statistics Canada figures showed nearly 24,000 jobs were lost in Alberta, more than a quarter of the 82,000 jobs lost across the country in February alone.

"What's happening here is having an effect across the country," Layton said. "I think that maybe this can give us the basis for some national unity, the sense that maybe we're all in the same boat together and maybe we need to work out a strategy where we can get out of it together." Layton met with Edmonton-Strathcona NDP MP Linda Duncan and representatives from the Pembina Institute, Public Interest Alberta, and the Land Stewardship Centre of Alberta to discuss a "green economic recovery strategy" for Canada.

It's worth noting from the outset that Ignatieff's vision of unity is actually framed in terms of searching for current divisions. And his response is either to try to paper over those divisions, or to emphasize them as reason to exclude some parties from any federal decision-making.

In contrast, Layton's message is oriented toward seeking common ground which is readily found in the midst of a crisis which is affecting the country as a whole.

Perhaps more importantly, though, Layton hasn't jumped into the Bloc-bashing competition between Harper and Ignatieff. And that contrast may offer his best opportunity to present a new type of national unity in the context where the term is most familiar.

After all, it would seem obvious that there's some serious contradiction in using "national unity" as an excuse to try to exclude a substantial number of Canada's elected parliamentarians from any real say in how the country is governed. But that's exactly what both Harper and Ignatieff have done.

And it hardly seems that either of them is about to reverse course. Having reached the conclusion that his best attack on Ignatieff involves the coalition deal which involved Bloc support, Harper has every incentive to try to keep the issue live whenever he can - and his party's difficulties in Quebec present little upside for him in doing otherwise. In turn, Ignatieff likely figures that his best chance in Quebec is to re-polarize the province along federalist/separatist lines - which will require him both to take his own shots at the Bloc at every opportunity, and to match every Harper anti-sovereigntist screed.

That combination of strategies will create an obvious opening for the NDP to develop soft-nationalist or post-nationalist support in Quebec in particular. But there may be room for a Canada-wide niche as well in criticizing the politics of exclusion.

I'd figured after the campaign that the NDP's next move forward might involve closer cooperation with the Bloc - either as a whole or among its individual members. And the NDP has already brokered one deal which would have helped to ensure that the Bloc's priorities for Quebec in dealing with the Harper recession (along with progressive priorities nationally) would have been better reflected in federal policy.

Which means that when the coalition comes up in the next campaign, the NDP can respond with a spirited defence not only of the progressive coalition deal, but also of the right of Bloc voters and MPs to participate as full members of the Canadian political scene. And a campaign focused on national unity might be the ideal situation in which to make that a key point of distinction.

Of course, that stance would almost certainly come off as a provocative position to begin with. But with Harper and Ignatieff engaging in an escalating battle as to who's less tolerant of the Bloc's existence, it figures to look more and more reasonable by comparison. And as an added bonus, it would also project a message of putting democratic principles ahead of political posturing.

Mind you, it's worth asking whether the Libs will themselves want to change directions before any election campaign - both because Ignatieff figures to lose the Bloc-hating battle with Harper, and because it might distract from the economic theme where Harper appears most vulnerable. But as long as the Libs want to keep its message moving in that direction, the NDP looks to have reason to be happy to follow.