The Hargrove expulsion: A wrong-headed move Layton needs to fix

[CHIMO]

Images of Buzz Hargrove embracing Paul Martin and giving him a Canadian Auto Workers' jacket to the cheers of thousands of union members danced in the eyes of the illuminati of the NDP who recently met in solemn conclave.

Buzz Hargrove and Jack Layton come at politics from very distinct points of view. Layton believes the Liberals are his real enemy and he hates them far more than he hates Harper. Hargrove hates only Harper and his pals Preston Manning and Mike Harris.

He played the corruption card constantly – against the advice of some of the NDP's best thinkers. Former Waffle leader and York University professor James Laxer told Layton that corruption was a Tory game. By joining in, Layton was only helping to elect an antilabour antisocialist Tory government.

Only Layton can heal the party's wounds.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_zolf/20060220.html

Interesting.

Although he fails to show some of the alternative points that freedom from the big unions could offer the party.

[Minstrel Boy]

1. "the illuminati of the NDP"?

When I read that, I knew it had to be Zolf!

For the record, Hargrove was suspended - a modest move, considering he spent the campaign by Paul Martin's side, particularly in ridings where the NDP were leading or seriously contending. Hargrove had the opportunity to appeal, but he declined. Wise decisions on both sides. Now the party and Hargrove can move on, separately.

As far as optics goes, Layton was wise to distance himself from the action of the Ontario Executive. But the decision was the correct one.

[MrPrax]

3. I am a bit disturbed...

This topic just SCREAMS Bragi...

He/She, like Bush, must have moved on...LOL

[Bragi]

7. I was diverted by life last week...

Yes, of course I agree with Zolf's thrust, and with Laxer's comments.

I note on today's (Monday's) Globe op-ed page we have yet another example of the NDPs obsession with trashing the Liberals.

The Globe gave the four national parties space to explain their position on Afghanistan. The NDP defence critic, on cue, spends most of her time trashing the former Liberal government, despite the fact that the policy of the Liberal Opposition is almost identical to that of the NDP (have a debate, yawn).

Alas, this leaves her little space left to attack the Conservatives, who you may recall are the one party that actually supports the Kandahar deployment, and who incidentally happen to be the government.

I suspect this is a hint of what we will see when the House opens. The NDP will continue its political attacks on the Official Opposition, who mostly reflects their own policies, while giving scant attention to the governing party as it implements its right wing agenda.

I'm sure sectarian NDP stalwarts (hello Minstrel Boy) will applaud this continued attempt to divide the centre-right, but I suspect doing this on a sustained basis will make the NDP less and less relevant to actual debates going on in the House, and to the media who cover these debates.

- B

[Minstrel Boy]

8. did you mistype, or

have you lost your bearings?

"I'm sure sectarian NDP stalwarts (hello Minstrel Boy) will applaud this continued attempt to divide the centre-right"

I've seen you make this slip before: a right turn when you seemed to be signalling a left. Kind of endemic with you lot, wot?

[Bragi]

11. yeah, it was a slip

I meant to write:

I'm sure sectarian NDP stalwarts (hello Minstrel Boy) will applaud this continued attempt to divide the centre-left"

[MrPrax]

9. Hey I like you...

You got hutzpah!!

Hey--why bother with the NewDum's defense 'critique'-- Comartin is the latest--um defender of a coherent NDP platform...


Supreme Court review may embarrass, demean, MP warns


A new federal process subjecting Supreme Court of Canada judges to public scrutiny will be ineffective at best and embarrassing at worst, the NDP representative on the review committee charged Friday.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, MP Joe Comartin – the NDP's only representative on the review committee – called the change in the selection process a “mistake” and said it needs to balance the privacy of the individual with the demand for more transparency in the process.???

More Glob Here

I've read a few news reports on Comartin's noble stand, but still, can't figure it out. Seems the Liberals agree--public has no business in telling the government, who they can and can't appoint.

[MrPrax]

2. Back to Sleep Zolf...

I like the intro to his column:

" Larry has been a critic, reporter, producer and consultant for CBC news and current affairs since he joined the CBC in 1962. Born and raised in North End Winnipeg, the hotbed of general strikes and socialism, Larry has covered stories such as integration in Mississippi and the October Crisis in Quebec."
...whoa...he's got street cred! He was BORN in a place that was a hotbed for radical politics and he was ASSIGNED to report on stories in the civil rights movement!

So Zolf's is ably suited to toss out 'punditry' and give advice to the NDP

So may the bashing commence--
"danced in the eyes of the illuminati of the NDP who recently met in solemn conclave."

"...when it would hold heresy trials to root out Trotskyites and Communists who tried to infiltrate!! the party. The NDP did not play by the Queensbury Rules then and it is certainly not playing by them with Hargrove."

"...by their puritan dogmatism vis-à-vis Hargrove.." Good--socialists always engage in dogmatism or polemics depending on whether the writer got that far in the dictionary.

"The conclave had all the earmarks of a heresy trial." ahh--good Larry, stick to the sinister quasi-religious smears

"...He played the corruption card constantly – against the advice of some of the NDP's best thinkers."??? constantly?

Maybe I missed that second part of the campaign, when there was a distinct change in tone, when EVERYONE, saw that the polls were moving towards the Torys. But then again, I am not qualified to observe such things like the illuminati Zolf

Anyway--Zolf is so out of touch he didn't realize that his statement:

"Hargrove believed that Layton could ignore the Gomery scandal and continue to work with the Liberals to get more concessions to the left."

is sorta obvious--well Duh, if KillBuzz was a Liberal supporter he would probably want the NDP (perhaps even the Tories!) to shut about about the Gomery scandal...I assume Buzzkill wants the Liberals elected, since he campaigned for them?

BUT Zolf rolls on, like the Mighty Saskatchewan:
"Layton needs Hargrove and should recognize that Harper is right of the Liberals. The Liberals are more progressive and small 'l' liberal than the Tories."--<--Brilliant Insight!!! Larry just rocked my world...I was unaware of these differences.!!
So the NDP, which according to Zolf, should just stop as the Liberals are more 'progressive' than the Tories. 'Kay

But of course the sturm and drang of Larry's intense analysis (he talked to James Laxer!!!) is brought to halt here: "Hargrove remains adamant that, expulsion or not, he will continue the same tactics in the next election. " Oh well if that the case--then how can the NDP let the guy back in the party? But then again, Liberals are kind of used to stealth candidates like Emerson, a Progressive small 'l' liberal.

So what did we learn today from the one of Canada's Great Thinkers©--that Larry is a liberal and Buzz is a liberal and so the NDP should fuck off.

PSST...if anyone is interested in the Buzz thing (real info and not just Liberals who don't like the NDP)...

Maclean's ran a longer version of this article that retains sme of the intrigue. A slightly different protrait of the BuzzKill emerges:

"Still, Hargrove is confident the two will work it out. "I'm going to have a relationship with the Prime Minister whether he wants to or not," he says. "I still represent some of the major sectors of the economy. He can't ignore me."


"He can't ignore me."
Neither can Larry apparantly...

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Hargrove's "dream of running for office ended in 2002

when he decided not to go after the NDP leadership."

Actually, Buzzer's gone after the NDP leadership for the years, usually with dagger drawn. The two AM's, Layton, Rae and Hampton all bear the scars of Hargrove's peculiar kinda lovin'.

Would have been a trip - a bad one - seeing him conduct a campaign as leader.

[MrPrax]

10. No kidding...

And isn't it really dishonest for Zolf NOT to have mentioned that particularly nasty dagger, Buzzkill slammed into Rae's government.

What did Buzz actually believe? That inspite of 'small' differences between the CAW and the Ontario NDP, that Labour would be better served by a Harris government...(I won't go into the 'conspiracy stuff' here about the what I think the CAW actually is and won't suggest that Buzz has more in common with the 'tradition' of Hal Banks than Angus MacInnis... ;-)

Astonishing ...

[Harper_is_Bush]

4. "The NDP has shot itself in the foot."

Good conclusion. Agree 100%

[V. Kid]

6. Your just saying that cause you don't want him to join the Liberal Party..