Hump day hits

* The Liberals plan to introduce a motion that would call on the government to inform our NATO allies we will be withdrawing our troops from combat operations in Afghanistan as scheduled, in February 2009. A good motion, I don’t see why the NDP and BQ won’t be able to get on board. Heck, given that the Conservatives insist we won’t be staying past then anyway they should be in favour of the motion too, right?

* The NDP has always been slightly do as I say, not as I do and their rhetoric since the May/Dion thing has been quite something, but they’ve surprised me again not just with their opposition to letting May in the leaders debates, but the condescension in their comments explaining why takes it to a new level. Red Tory and Steve get into it at length, but let me just say I once again find the NDP positioning rather pretzelish here.

Under electoral reforms that the NDP is championing the Greens would have 12 seats. But because in a system the NDP feels is undemocratic and excludes grassroots voices the Greens have no seats, they feel they should be excluded.

Now, while I support electoral reform many (most?) Liberals don’t. At least they’re honest about why, it would cost the Liberals seats, power, and hurt their chances of forming majorities. Not a particularly honourable position but hey, at least they’re up front about it.

Given the apparent gap however illustrated today between NDP rhetoric and NDP reality, one has to question just how much of their support for electoral reform is about reflecting Canada’s diversity of voices and democracy, and how much is just about gaining seats for the NDP.

* The Liberals have a new TV ad out that you can watch here (and at the snazzy new Liberal Web site). It’s a short, positive message clearly designed to answer the Con attack ads and portray Dion as a leader that gets things done. While Conservatives are unsurprisingly panning it and Liberals seem to like it, neither group is the target audience. With the target audience I think it will potentially be effective at blunting the negative Conservative messaging somewhat. A good start, nice ad.

* A press release in my inbox tells me that Water.ca will air an interview with Dion on Thursday at 9:15 am EDT on “The need for a national water policy; water issues in native communities; water usage in the oil sands and the future of North West passage” and other such stuff. So, if you’re interested in water issues (and it’s a bigger issue that you may think) might be worth checking out.

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