Why Jack Layton can't win the leaders' debate

This year, the NDP campaign message is a random assortment of pledges, united by the principle of “getting results for people”. Even in Canada, this is unforgivably dull. To use a silly metaphor, no matter how striking this year’s NDP flowers, they do not constitute a bouquet.

No distinctive vision unifies the NDP’s propositions. Their famous budget only spread money around -- there was no standout item. For instance, climate change, the one issue where they excel, affords them the chance to paint themselves as the party of the future, to consistently trumpet that they will not only retrofit Canadian homes but the whole Canadian economy, so that it’s more competitive in the global market and more rewarding to workers at home.

The only way to achieve short-term gains in electoral politics is to harvest the fruit (one more botanical metaphor) of long-term labour. Over time, you have to show Canadians that you represent something and when elections roll around, play to the strengths of your long-term message -- something the NDP is now completely failing to do.

The Liberals, by virtue mostly of coincidence, can consistently claim to be Canada’s only national party. In fact, it’s the most appealing thing about them.

The federal Conservatives, after years of civil war, are finally returning to what they were back when they won elections -- progressive conservatives. In other words, vaguely awful people who are nonetheless tolerable enough to hold power while the Liberals find a new leader. They’re proving this now by showing a basic grasp of policy and smiling.

Each party also benefits, as one of my friends pointed out, from having a basic ideological orientation embedded in its name. Not the NDP. Who, other than the party’s candidates, employees, and volunteers calls him or herself a New Democrat? What does that even mean?

What has the NDP since Ed Broadbent been building itself into? What kind of Canada has it been trying to build? In all this time, it seems the only thing the NDP has managed is to become, under Jack, a little more professional, a little more respectable, a little less scary.

The NDP has become the pragmatic, progressive party that stands for … various pragmatic, progressive things. Like public transit. Or, say, treating seniors with dignity. Opposing climate change, of course. And against Star Wars missile defence. And, you know, tough-but-not-too-tough on crime. Oh right, and the NDP stands for Canadian values.

Today, the NDP is awkwardly straddling the two functions of resistance and proposition like a camper straddles the canoe and the dock with a foot on each -- this camper always lands in the lake.

Let’s be more concrete. The NDP employs the electoral tactics of a loser, claiming to be trying this time to win. NDP insiders are convinced that if they attack the Conservatives, they’ll scare their own soft supporters into voting Liberal. So they only attack the Liberals. It’s like ordering tofu at a diner. Don’t all Canadians already agree that the Liberals are rather grim? Aren’t most Canadians (especially progressive ones) deep down afraid of one thing only -- Stephen Harper, and desperate for a genuine alternative?

Sometimes the NDP tries to attack the Conservatives, but it’s painfully forced. Don’t want to show how scary they are. Layton’s consistent zinger on the Conservatives is to attack their policies as “wrongheaded” -- ouch. He sometimes adds that they’re “wrong on Canadians values” -- fiery stuff.

Why doesn’t Layton paint the Liberals and Conservatives as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, flip sides of the same coin? Why doesn’t he say,

“They both stand for policies that will hurt all but the elite, they both represent tired, old debates, they both have no effective plans for education, childcare, and climate change. Ultimately, they both totally lack a constructive, forward-looking vision for working Canadians, whereas we…

“We…”

And there’s the rub. Jack Layton can’t win the leaders’ debate because he’s got nothing to offer. A good bouquet leaves a distinct smell that is more alluring than the sum of its odours. Despite its diverse, multicoloured contents, a good bouquet screams coherence. The offer of a handful of flowers is kinda nice, but a bouquet demonstrates effort -- careful thinking and prudent selection.

My suspicion is that strategy and marketing have overwhelmed the NDP brain trust. When it comes to policy, the effort just isn’t there.