Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Thomas Walkom criticizes the Cons' war on labour at the federal level - though John Ivison notes that the Cons' habit of interfering in every federal labour dispute looks to help the NDP all the more. And Pat Atkinson worries that the Sask Party is headed down a similarly destructive road in Saskatchewan.

- John Ibbitson recognizes why Thomas Mulcair's message on the environment and the economy has been well received by the Canadian public:

Mr. Mulcair accuses the Conservative government of failing to require oil and other natural resource companies to pay the full environmental cost of their operations, and would compel them to do so if the NDP came to power.

“It's about the enforcement of federal legislation,” he said. “Since the beginning, we've made it clear that we're very concerned that the federal government is not enforcing federal law.”

Mr. Mulcair's message is powerful, first and foremost because he believes it. He was saying it months ago, long before he won the leadership. Cynics forget the impact that a principled argument, passionately held, can have.

The NDP leader offers opponents of Stephen Harper a standard around which to rally. This is the first time that progressive forces have been able to put forward a leader and a message that offer such a compelling alternative to the Prime Minister and his conservative orthodoxy.

- And Tim Harper suggests that the Cons and their spokesflacks only look silly in demanding that the leader of the opposition stop doing his job:

Mulcair is a federal leader and, as such, he has the right — indeed, the obligation — to question federal environmental policies.

No matter how many times he is demonized from the West or across the aisle in the House of Commons, he is raising questions that call for mature debate, not comic book counterattacks from Conservatives who want to paint the nation in white hats and black hats.
...
The federal environmental record of this government is appalling; its own environmental commissioner said as much earlier this month.

“What I say with regard to sustainable development applies as much in New Brunswick as it does in British Columbia,’’ Mulcair said this week. “It’s a vision to include economic, social and environmental aspects every time the government takes a decision.’’

- But then, it may be inevitable that the Cons are out of touch with much of the country based on their divide-and-scare approach - which Frances Russell points out in her latest.

- Finally, David Climenhaga highlights tonight's Casserole Night in Canada as a chance for citizens to show they're not willing to be cut out of our political processes.