Official Opposition Leader a closet separatist? Remember Harper fear-mongering about "socialists and separatists"? Now he's off meeting and forging formal ties and trade deals with a former Marxist guerilla...
Seems there is a real double standard here... If you're Liberal you aren't even allowed to make LEGAL Parliamentary deals - in the true spirit of Parliamentary procedure - with legitimate opposition parties, BUT if you're a Conservative PM you can make deals with Marxists?
Here's Ralph Goodale's take on the NDP Leadership crisis, and lack of Official Opposition:
NDP TURMOIL HAMSTRINGS OFFICIAL OPPOSITION
In traditional Parliamentary language, the second-largest political Party in the House of Commons forms “Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition”.
Their duty, on behalf of all Canadians, is to hold the government to account. They must be tough on the issues, but never with any hint of disloyalty to the country.
The federal NDP were entrusted with that responsibility after Canada’s May 2nd election, but now, they’re engulfed in turmoil.
Some of their difficulty is the understandable result of Jack Layton’s tragic illness, and Canadians have rightly cut the NDP some slack for that reason. However, other issues have emerged more recently for which there is little public tolerance.
The person selected as Interim NDP Leader – Nycole Turmel (one of their first-time Quebec MP’s) – turns out to be a recent member of not one, but two, political organizations that advocate separatism.
When this information came to light, not through voluntary disclosure, but from an investigative reporter, Ms. Turmel claimed it was all a misunderstanding.
But why was she not transparent from the outset? Why did she fail to tell voters that for four years she had been a full-fledged member, supporter and financial contributor in two separatist organizations?
That’s not some “misunderstanding”. It’s fundamentally wrong. Either you believe in a united Canada, or you don’t.
Ms. Turmel says she was so attracted to the social policies and to the friends she found in these separatist organizations, she simply overlooked their primary objective of destroying the country. Really?
The damage is done. In Parliament, Stephen Harper will dismiss the NDP Leader as a closet separatist with no judgment or credibility.
And “Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition” will be hamstrung – just when the world is confronting a dangerous debt crisis, and Parliament needs to be focused relentlessly on sound economics, productivity and competitiveness, job-creating small businesses and better family incomes.
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