The NDP’s national campaign director is warning his troops to be ready to fight an election “in the coming weeks,” ramping up already overheated speculation that a federal campaign is imminent.
“Stephen Harper has shown little indication that he’s willing to stop the political games,” Brad Lavigne writes in an internal memo to NDP candidates and organizers obtained by The Globe. “He’s shown little indication that he’ll stop the [corporate tax-cut] giveaways to the well-connected.”
The Sunday night missive comes just two days after a meetingbetween Jack Layton and Prime Minister Stephen Harper over the NDP’s demands for next month’s federal budget. It also comes amid a new Nanos poll showing improvements in the national horserace numbers for the NDP.
Clearly, the meeting, in which Mr. Layton presented his budget shopping list, did not go that well – at least not well enough for the NDP to muse about supporting the Harper government’s budget.
Mr. Harper and his team need the support of at least one of the three opposition parties in order for their budget to pass. If the fiscal plan – expected March 22 – is defeated the country will be plunged into a general election.
In his memo, Mr. Lavigne focuses on the issue of the corporate tax cuts – perhaps doing a bit of damage control after weekend stories that the NDP had taken the corporate tax cut issue off the table.
“On Friday, Jack Layton met with Stephen Harper at the Prime Minister’s request,” Mr. Lavigne writes. “Jack Layton’s message to Mr. Harper was clear – it’s time to put the games aside. And it’s time to help Canadian families struggling to get ahead.”
In the meeting, Mr. Layton “stressed that the Liberal/Conservative across-the-board corporate giveaway are wrong for Canada.”
Though Michael Ignatieff has supported tax relief for business in the past, the Liberals now say they cannot support the budget if the government does not roll back this latest round of cuts to corporations.
The NDP opposes the cuts as well, but this was not clear after Mr. Layton’s meeting with Mr. Harper since they were not part of the New Democratic budget wish list. The Liberals jumped on this over the weekend.
“It’s sad to see the NDP abandon the fight for tax fairness without a whimper,” Liberal MP Bob Rae told The Globe. “NDP figures it is losing tax cuts issue to the Liberals, and so needs its own territory. As the Tom Lehrer song says, ‘playing second fiddle’s a hard part, I know, when they won’t give you the bow’.”
Mr. Rae, a former NDP premier of Ontario, believes Mr. Layton’s caucus is divided on whether to try to take down the government over the budget. “If they do join in to the opposition to the budget – because the Tories don’t play ball – they see a small victory. If the Tories play ball – they ‘win’ (according to their theory). People will reward them for gaining concessions.”
The Liberal MP warns, however, that there is a “fatal weakness” to this strategy.
“The first is that everyone can see through it – it simply papers over the split in their caucus, they’ve ceded the tax cut issue to the Liberals (big mistake) and if they support the Tories they’re done for because their base is fiercely anti-Harper. If they don’t support them no one will notice. They are playing a bad hand of cards.”
Mr. Lavigne, meanwhile, told his troops that being ready to fight an election at any time puts the party in a position of strength. “And if Stephen Harper wants to head into an election showing that he is unable to put the needs of Canadians ahead of his own political goals, New Democrats will be ready to fight that election – and win.”
