Layton promises to maintain Quebec Commons standings and defend French language

[canada-man]

MONTREAL - NDP Leader Jack Layton laid out his party's plan Saturday to defend Quebec's interests, days before his Quebec laden caucus takes on its new role in Parliament as the Official Opposition.

In a speech to the NDP's Quebec wing, Layton said the party will do its best to find solutions for the province within Canada.

"Quebecers put their trust in us to represent them in Parliament," he told supporters. "It's a big responsibility."

Layton said the NDP will start by championing the cause of Quebec holding the same proportion of seats in the House of Commons that it currently does.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is looking to increase the number of MPs in other provinces where the population has grown quickly.

That would reduce the percentage of seats Quebec currently holds, something that has enraged provincial politicians. Quebec currently has 75 of the 308 Commons seats or 24 per cent.

Other priorities for the NDP include securing Quebec compensation for merging its sales tax with the federal GST and strengthening French language laws in Quebec's federal buildings.

Layton also repeated his commitment to accepting the results of a referendum on sovereignty, even if it was only 50 per cent plus one in favour of separation. Earlier in the week, Layton appeared to avoid giving a clear position on the issue.

Layton said he acknowledges that his promise to defend Quebec has been met with some resistance elsewhere in Canada, but he said the vast majority of Canadians want Quebec to be a key part of the country.

He said attitudes have changed a lot in the past three decades and people are tired of old debates that pit Quebec against Canada.

"My goal is actually to work on concrete solutions now so we wouldn't have to face a referendum question," Layton told reporters after his speech.

"Wouldn't that be the ideal scenario? I think people all across Canada are expressing a desire for that and that's certainly what we're working for."

NDP Deputy Leader Thomas Mulcair, the party's lone returning Quebec MP, took a stronger line than Layton as he outlined the NDP's commitments for the province.

Mulcair promised to introduce policies that would protect the French language, even taking a jab at immigrants who try to avoid French-language schooling.

"People who choose Quebec, because an immigrant is not forced to come to Quebec, needs to understand that they will need to learn French and so must their families, first and foremost," he said in a speech.

In an interview, Mulcair said the NDP has long-supported policies that defend the language and culture of Quebecers and he's happy people are finally starting to take notice.

He said it's not enough to recognize Quebec is distinct and that tangible steps are necessary.

"The best way to preserve the place of Quebec within Canada is to ensure that Quebecers feel safe with their language and culture."

Guy Caron, the new head of the NDP's Quebec caucus, said such policies are necessary to win over voters in the province, many of whom voted for separation in the 1995 referendum.

"If we want to bring people together, we need to work with everyone in Quebec," he said.

The party jumped from one seat to 59 Quebec in the May 2 election, making New Democrats the province's strongest voice in Parliament. Quebec MPs make up more than half the party's caucus.

Layton appeared to embrace this role as he slammed the Harper government's response to the Quebec's flooding.

He said the federal government must take a leadership role and more soldiers should be sent to the Richelieu Valley immediately to help in the relief effort.

“It seems every time the flood waters rise, the federal government pulls back," he said. "It should be the opposite."

Layton said he plans to tour the flood zone on Monday.

http://www.680news.com/news/nationa...-commons-standings-and-defend-french-language

 

[Aardvark154]

On the other hand:

The National Post

Rex Murphy: Jack Layton’s hidden agenda for Quebec

The election is over, but the stale, lame rhetoric remains the same. Jack Layton, for instance, now is accusing Stephen Harper — it’s just like old times — of having a “hidden agenda” in changing the name of Canada’s “Indian Affairs” department to “Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.”

“We hear that there are different reactions to the name change within the broad community of First Nation, Inuit and Metis people,” said Layton this week. “It is mostly a suspicion that this could be hiding an agenda of some sort. We have from time to time, had suspicions that Mr. Harper is hiding one sort of agenda or other.”

That two-word phrase may have worked for a while as a cowbell to summon all the maddened anti-Harperites. But surely it’s a little worn and thin now. With a Parliamentary majority, his agenda — whatever it is — will be on full and open display in coming years. Majorities, by definition, cannot have hidden agendas.

But if someone wants to raise the possibility of a real “hidden agenda,” they should look to the brand new Official Opposition leader and ask him what’s his agenda for Quebec in the event of another separatist crisis.

The addition of 59 new MPs into the NDP caucus has brought Mr. Layton into full temporizing and evasion mode. When asked basic questions such as whether he supports the Clarity Act, what is a “clear majority” in a vote on Quebec separation, whether some of his new caucus are out-and-out separatists, he flops and flounders. I would not have thought it possible, but he makes one yearn for the relative lucidity of that great logician, Jean Chrétien — he who brought us “A proof is a proof … and when you have a good proof, you know, it’s proven.”

For Mr. Layton, the “clear majority” (as required by the Supreme Court) in a vote on separation amounts to a bare 50% plus one. The fate of the whole country, according to our new opposition leader, should be determined by a “majority” of a single vote.

Stéphane Dion, the author of the 2000 Clarity Act, which we thought had finally put all these matters to bed more than a decade ago, offered a matchless riposte to this pandering fatuousness: “If [Mr. Layton] thinks 50% plus one is a clear majority, what does he think is an unclear majority?” Mr. Layton should do the honour of giving this question an honest, straight reply.

For he cannot swim in brazen ambiguities, dancing between appeasing soft or not-so-soft nationalism in his fresh Quebec caucus and his role as Official Opposition leader for very long. Frankly, it is unbecoming of him as a national federalist politician even to try. It is part of a disturbing rhetorical pattern: Just as Gilles Duceppe always spoke of standing for the interests of Quebecers, Mr. Layton is assuring all and sundry that he will protect Quebec’s best interests.

As other have noted, all these new NDP seats are not evidence of some great fresh Quebec romance with Mr. Layton’s party. The disintegration of the Bloc, the utter collapse of its appeal, sent its supporters elsewhere. They found the easiest halfway house for their frustrations in the NDP. These new MPs are, mainly, NDP from default not conviction.

And that goes for some of the MPs themselves, too: True believers don’t seek out the slots in Vegas during a campaign.

We do not want, we cannot afford, an Official Opposition that is soft on federalism. (We already tried that between 1993 and 1997, and it did not go well.) Indeed, Jack Layton’s performance this week suggests our new Opposition Leader needs his own personal Clarity Act — to clarify what is expected of him in his new role.



http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/05/28/rex-murphy-jack-laytons-hidden-agenda-for-quebec/