Around the edges

Yesterday it was Lawrence Martin who managed to fit a positive mention of Jack Layton and the NDP's alternative into a column criticizing old-style politics. Today, it's Susan Riley's turn:

While Ignatieff debases himself, Harper absents himself as much as protocol allows. The implication is that the prime minister has more important business (a meeting with the prime minister of New Zealand?), than the triflers across the aisle. Smart.

By Thursday, even Liberals realized their scandal-mongering could backfire and they switched focus to another, more serious matter: mounting evidence of wilful blindness by Harper's senior officials to abuse of Afghan detainees.

But only Jack Layton asked questions that touch closely on people's lives: Quebec's challenge to medicare and nuclear policy. Unfortunately, neither media, nor polls, notice that kind of thing.

Of course, it would be all the better if Riley and others were willing to take responsibility for what gets noticed and pay a bit more attention to the NDP's substantive work. (And indeed, there's a prime example this week of a positive NDP initiative receiving shamefully little attention).

But it's at least a step in the right direction that Layton's focus on the issues that actually affect Canadians in their everyday lives is starting to get noticed. And the more agreement there is among opinion leaders that there actually is a better option than the usual Con/Lib back-and-forth, the better the chances that Canadians will come to expect better from all parties.