Australia's 'climate-change' election inspires Layton to emu
hurley_108 @ Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:58 am
And now, for my 4000th post:
$1:
Australia's 'climate-change' election inspires Layton to emulate green platform
BILL CURRY
From Monday's Globe and Mail
November 26, 2007 at 5:12 AM EST
OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jack Layton is rushing today to align himself with newly elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, promising an NDP platform in the next federal election that will closely follow the Aussie Labor leader's moderate formula.
In his first press conference since his election, Mr. Rudd stressed yesterday that his priority in government was "action and action now on climate change and water."
In a campaign-style speech to be delivered today in Vancouver, Mr. Layton will argue that many of his own environmental ideas are now in the international mainstream, pointing to Mr. Rudd's resounding victory over four-term conservative prime minister John Howard and the election platforms of U.S. Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
Mr. Layton's wave of international name-dropping is designed to win over Canadian voters who normally turn up their noses at the NDP. The Australian Labor party's campaign drew inspiration from former British prime minister Tony Blair's "New Labour" movement, which moved the traditionally left party into the centre - and into power.
By aligning himself with U.S. Democrats, Mr. Layton is also copying the tactics of the Liberal Party, which invited senior Democrat Howard Dean to be the keynote speaker of the party's 2006 leadership convention.
Mr. Layton campaigned in both the 2004 and 2006 elections with a platform promising a "green economy" where federal incentives would create thousands of jobs manufacturing wind turbines, retrofitting older homes and producing cleaner-running vehicles.
The fact that Mr. Rudd was victorious with similar promises of "skilling Australia" for the new economy, while the Democratic-led U.S. Congress is pushing through a "Green Jobs Act" along the same lines, will be highlighted today by Mr. Layton.
The Australian media have described this weekend's vote as the world's first climate-change election.
Just as Canada's economy relies heavily on selling fossil fuels to the large U.S. market, Australia is a major exporter of coal to China. As a result, both Mr. Howard and Mr. Harper were strong critics of Kyoto, arguing that the deal is unfair to their energy-exporting nations.
But Mr. Howard's refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol proved to be a significant liability in a country struggling with water shortages and other issues associated with climate change.
With the possibility of a Canadian election within months, all federal parties are currently hoping to set up the defining issue of the next campaign. Conservatives want an election centred on issues such as leadership, crime and taxes. Mr. Layton's bid for a climate-change-focused campaign would be discouraged by Conservatives, but welcomed by the NDP's other rival, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, a former environment minister.
A draft version of Mr. Layton's speech to the B.C. Federation of Labour promises to make "green-collar jobs" a focus of the NDP's next platform.
Mr. Layton then lists "innovative solutions" currently under way in other countries that he would like to see take off in Canada. Among Mr. Layton's examples: Mr. Rudd is promising to retrofit 200,000 homes through low-interest loans; Germany has encouraged a wind-energy sector that employs 40,000 people and has created jobs in the economically depressed regions of East Germany; the Clinton campaign promises a $1-billion Green Building Fund to retrofit buildings and the Edwards campaign includes a "Green Collar Jobs Training Initiative" that promises to employ 150,000 Americans in the "new energy economy."
With a report from Agence France-Presse
BILL CURRY
From Monday's Globe and Mail
November 26, 2007 at 5:12 AM EST
OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jack Layton is rushing today to align himself with newly elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, promising an NDP platform in the next federal election that will closely follow the Aussie Labor leader's moderate formula.
In his first press conference since his election, Mr. Rudd stressed yesterday that his priority in government was "action and action now on climate change and water."
In a campaign-style speech to be delivered today in Vancouver, Mr. Layton will argue that many of his own environmental ideas are now in the international mainstream, pointing to Mr. Rudd's resounding victory over four-term conservative prime minister John Howard and the election platforms of U.S. Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
Mr. Layton's wave of international name-dropping is designed to win over Canadian voters who normally turn up their noses at the NDP. The Australian Labor party's campaign drew inspiration from former British prime minister Tony Blair's "New Labour" movement, which moved the traditionally left party into the centre - and into power.
By aligning himself with U.S. Democrats, Mr. Layton is also copying the tactics of the Liberal Party, which invited senior Democrat Howard Dean to be the keynote speaker of the party's 2006 leadership convention.
Mr. Layton campaigned in both the 2004 and 2006 elections with a platform promising a "green economy" where federal incentives would create thousands of jobs manufacturing wind turbines, retrofitting older homes and producing cleaner-running vehicles.
The fact that Mr. Rudd was victorious with similar promises of "skilling Australia" for the new economy, while the Democratic-led U.S. Congress is pushing through a "Green Jobs Act" along the same lines, will be highlighted today by Mr. Layton.
The Australian media have described this weekend's vote as the world's first climate-change election.
Just as Canada's economy relies heavily on selling fossil fuels to the large U.S. market, Australia is a major exporter of coal to China. As a result, both Mr. Howard and Mr. Harper were strong critics of Kyoto, arguing that the deal is unfair to their energy-exporting nations.
But Mr. Howard's refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol proved to be a significant liability in a country struggling with water shortages and other issues associated with climate change.
With the possibility of a Canadian election within months, all federal parties are currently hoping to set up the defining issue of the next campaign. Conservatives want an election centred on issues such as leadership, crime and taxes. Mr. Layton's bid for a climate-change-focused campaign would be discouraged by Conservatives, but welcomed by the NDP's other rival, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, a former environment minister.
A draft version of Mr. Layton's speech to the B.C. Federation of Labour promises to make "green-collar jobs" a focus of the NDP's next platform.
Mr. Layton then lists "innovative solutions" currently under way in other countries that he would like to see take off in Canada. Among Mr. Layton's examples: Mr. Rudd is promising to retrofit 200,000 homes through low-interest loans; Germany has encouraged a wind-energy sector that employs 40,000 people and has created jobs in the economically depressed regions of East Germany; the Clinton campaign promises a $1-billion Green Building Fund to retrofit buildings and the Edwards campaign includes a "Green Collar Jobs Training Initiative" that promises to employ 150,000 Americans in the "new energy economy."
With a report from Agence France-Presse
I'm highly doubtful Jack can get anywhere near Government, but if he plays his hand right, and moderates the platform enough, we may just be able to pull off Opposition. These are heady days, friends...
damngrumpy @ Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:33 pm
Actually the green party stole most of its platform from the pages of the NDP policy platforms of years gone by. It will be awhile before the party comes to power in this country but you are right opposition is posible and once there, official opposition is the government in waiting.
hurley_108 @ Mon Nov 26, 2007 8:00 pm
damngrumpy damngrumpy:
Actually the green party stole most of its platform from the pages of the NDP policy platforms of years gone by. It will be awhile before the party comes to power in this country but you are right opposition is posible and once there, official opposition is the government in waiting.
I wonder what chance there is of the Greens and New Democrats Merging. Call it the Green Democratic Party. Depending on who looked to be the front-runners for leadership (I think a lot of the present Green candidates used to be members of the Progressive Conservatives, so I'd hope a moderate NDPer would look to be the leader), I might vote for such a merger.
Using the last election's results as a guide, if NDP votes and Green votes are added together riding by riding, the merged party would have managed five additional seats (all at the expense of the Liberals). Combine that with the added strength of a merged party and a potentially more moderate leader, and the result could be even better.
hurley_108 @ Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:51 pm
hurley_108 hurley_108:
...the merged party would have managed five additional seats...
Oops, that's actually only four. The tables from the elections website are a little hard to use and the method I used to count gave votes for a conservative candidate by the name of Green to the Green party candidate.
damngrumpy @ Tue Nov 27, 2007 9:50 pm
Not a chance, if you look beyond the immediate position of environment, the Greens are conservatives in sheeps clothing, and I for one would not support the party if they had anything to do with the Greens. I am not sure who I dislike more, the Greens or the Tories
Streaker @ Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:19 am
hmm... The idea of a merger of the two parties is very appealing on first glance, but how much common ground do they really share?
My guess is that a merger would result in a number of discontented Green supporters splintering off to form yet a new party, and we would eventually be back to square one.
Still, if the Greens were up for a merger I don't think it could be a bad thing from the NDPs standpoint, and dubbing the new party the "Green Democratic Party" would be a winner, too.