Layton Outlines NDP Five Priorities

In his keynote speech at the NDP Convention in Quebec City today, Jack Layton outlined the five priorities for the NDP over the coming months. The priorities are as follows:

• Bring Canada's troops home from Afghanistan.
• Provide more affordable housing to working Canadians and help young people buy their first homes.
• Increase access to education and training for young Canadians.
• Take better care of the elderly.
• Protect the environment through tough auto emissions standards and clamping down on the emissions of large-scale industrial polluters.

These seem like good priorities to me, but I take issue with the wording of a couple of them. On the affordable housing priority, the wording is highly problematic. The reference to "working Canadians" suggests that the NDP will not support providing affordable housing for homeless people (though I do not believe that this was the intent). The NDP has become too wedded to this phrase "working Canadians" or "working families." This to my mind equates to referring to citizens as taxpayers. The priority ought to say that the NDP will provide more affordable housing to "Canadians." I also take issue with the wording of point four. Simply saying "take better care of the elderly" is too vague. Once can provide a more specific, while brief statement of such a priority, for example: 'improve access to healthcare and support services for seniors.'

I believe that the intent behind the priorities is good, and addresses many areas that need urgent attention, but I believe that they need work. They must be re-written to be more inclusive and more specific. If the NDP can focus on the (rewritten) priorities, then hopefully some good can be accomplished. Having concise statements of principle such as these will also be helpful in the next election, since the Conservative campaign of 2006 proved that simple and direct priority statements can be effective and because the NDP has struggled to be concise in the past. But they must be reworked. If they are not, I can't support the second point, and will have difficulty explaining point four to others.

Cheers

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