Jack Layton, Leader of the Official Opposition in the Canadian Parliament, New Democratic Party leader, died this morning, August 22, 2011.

He wrote a letter to Canadians on August 20 which you can read here.

I felt a lot of empathy for him when he announced his new cancer not too long ago, so I believe it is a very sad day for many Canadians.  I believe he was very well liked, even by people who say they disagree with socialism and collectivism.

To me, all the major parties are socialist and collectivist, and the left-right spectrum is fraudulent to begin with, and is designed to fool people to keep the power structure in place.

I find it is helpful to zero in on some of Jack Layton’s parliamentary speeches and bio, to point out those points where he is advocating for mercy and peace, or speaking the truth and talking about reality. Also I can mention those things I disliked.

The overall picture may help demonstrate how this idea of left-wing and right-wing parties is ridiculous if you are searching for ideals, for what is true. People adopt errors they don’t need to adopt just because they slot in to their favorite party.

Postal Strike:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/House/411/Debates/013/HAN013-E.PDF (original – current link is at ourcommons.ca – alternatively openparliament.ca)
Wed. June 22

Hon. Jack Layton (Leader of the Opposition, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister’s message to workers could not be more clear: if they do not swallow whatever the employer gives them, then they can fully expect to get a worse raw deal in legislation from the government. The Conservatives are imposing even lower wages than the employer was offering to the workers.  He says that mail service is important to the economy and small business, but then he locks the door on the mail sorting plants and post offices. How can the Prime Minister blame the workers for the situation when it is his government that is shutting down the mail?

I think he made a good point.   From my perspective, sure, it would be better to have competition in the postal service.  Why didn’t the Prime Minister work towards that kind of solution instead of interfering with the partial strike and making it worse?   Why can’t people be allowed to negotiate their wages and support each other at the same time?

We should have more mail service in fact and better mail service, but we have less and less over the years.  Why?  Does the government try to fix it?

Isn’t this  action just another fascist consolidation of government power by interfering in labour-employer negotiations?   And the government even started to (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/06/13/18277961.html) legislate Air Canada employees back to work also.    Maybe they had some legitimate grievances and needed more to support their families and their future!  I can relate to that!

CAN WE HAVE A FUTURE, PLEASE!?  Can we have some more money, can we have our pensions, can we we get back to a higher standard of living, can we be freer, can we be left alone please?   Can we have some more business, and more factories AND MORE ENERGY and more MAIL (great big packages).   How about that?

Isn’t there going to be a future?   Sure, the economy is vulnerable.  But WHY?  Is anyone going to fix that in Canada?   Or are we just going to be dragged by our “international obligations” down the sink hole by globalist political parties of all stripes.  Guess!

Maybe we will all need to create new kinds of unions where we stand up for each other instead of licking boots.  Even middle class libertarians!  Maybe the populist “left” have some of the the right ideas about “solidarity”.   I’d say:  Abolish the debt.  Lower taxes.   Save our jobs.  Save our incomes.  Save our freedoms.  Save the future.  Stop investing our money overseas, never mind what these politicians think.  Stop investing our money in bombs and death and world government and police state measures.

Libya:

Hon. Jack Layton (Leader of the Opposition, NDP): Mr. Speaker, New Democrats proposed and secured amendments regarding the mission in Libya, including an increase in  humanitarian aid and that there would be a focus on strengthening our diplomatic role.   The House also made it very clear that the UN mandate would focus on protecting civilians, as the UN calls for, and working toward a ceasefire.  In light of the Italian foreign minister’s call for an immediate suspension of hostilities to establish humanitarian corridors to deliver that aid, can the Prime Minister tell us if he has been in contact with our Italian allies to work toward that kind of a ceasefire?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I spoke to Prime Minister Berlusconi at the G8 and I know that our governments have been in contact since. Obviously we would like to see opportunities to deliver humanitarian aid. To this point the Gadhafi regime has been unwilling to stop its attacks on certain areas of the country. We would urge it to do so.

Hon. Jack Layton (Leader of the Opposition, NDP): Mr. Speaker, it is critical that the people of Libya receive humanitarian aid. For that to happen quickly, it is essential that a ceasefire, even a temporary one, be called.  What concrete action has this government taken to ensure that humanitarian aid is actually getting to the Libyan people? What aid has Canada given to Libyan civilians to date?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC): Mr. Speaker, this government has contributed to international humanitarian efforts in Libya. However, it is sometimes impossible to deliver this aid to certain areas of the country because Gadhafi’s military is attacking the Libyan people. We urge the Libyan government to stop these attacks on its own people.

Jack Layton, although he seems to not argue with the one-sided and cunningly manipulative war propaganda that Harper and the Establishment’s media spout, and he also has a blind spot with the UN, and talks about “humanitarian aid” as if we can afford that on top of the bombs … So there isn’t much good to say about the NDP on Libya,  but at least Layton called for a ceasefire and more diplomacy.  Better than the endless killing that goes on in our name (Mostly in the UN’s name, because the corporate socialist UN told the Canadian parliament what to do and they did it, and the corporate socialist media tell the public what to believe.  Not democratic.)

Jobs and Economy:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/House/411/Debates/009/HAN009-E.PDF (original link: http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/House/411/Debates/009/HAN009-E.PDF)
Wed. June 15

Hon. Jack Layton (Leader of the Opposition, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the economy and job creation depend on four key factors: consumption, exports, investment and the government.  Canadian household debt is far too high. Canadians are at a breaking point.  Exports are declining. Corporations are no longer reinvesting because the tax cuts they are getting from the  Conservatives are nothing but bonuses for senior management. The ball is in the government’s court.  When will there be a real strategy for growth and job creation for our workers and our Canadians?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC): Mr. Speaker, Canada has the best job creation record in the industrialized world. We are currently seeing a private sector-led recovery. Obviously, the budget passed by this Parliament will help us continue this recovery.

Hon. Jack Layton (Leader of the Opposition, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the facts run counter to what the Prime Minister is saying. Since the Conservatives came to power, the fact is we have lost hundreds of thousands of good paying manufacturing jobs. The latest data from Statistics Canada today confirms that the bleeding continues. Manufacturing, in particular, and the auto and aerospace industries are losing thousands of jobs. When are we going to realize that the policies are creating low wage part-time jobs and killing the balanced economy that we have been building in our country since the Second World War?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the Canadian economy has created over 550,000 jobs since the recession. Those jobs have been focused in the private sector and on high paying jobs. Those are the facts. Obviously we would like to see more and that is why we passed the budget. The leader of the NDP said earlier that we could not create jobs through consumption, or investment or through exports, that we had to do it through government. On this side, we are aiming to have a private sector-led recovery.

Technically the Prime Minister has this rhetoric I’m supposed to agree with if I was dumb enough to interpret it ideologically.  But I tend to think that the facts are with Jack Layton if not all the principles.  Here, he makes a key point about Canadian household debt being too high.  People are in trouble.   He makes the point that Canada has lost manufacturing jobs.  Sure, Harper didn’t cause that himself obviously – it was Liberal governments before him also.

But wouldn’t it be nice if Harper decided to figure out the real causes and reverse the globalist process of deindustrialization?  But he would have to go against all of the corporate elites and their international “free trade” agreements and their endless wars and their fraudulent debt/banking system, endless foreign aid to every disaster we can’t afford, not to mention the new globalist Agenda 21 agreement coming up in 2012, and the endless UN carbon tax agreements to make life more expensive for all of us (which people pretend the PM is against).   Hasn’t Canada signed on to everything?  All globalist resource-rationing and wealth redistribution and social engineering treaties.   Is rationing of energy and other resources a way to promote prosperity?  Really?   I dare the Conservatives to go against the UN instead of sucking up to it.  I dare you.   Show some guts.

It would be nice to see the “Conservative” PM really go against these treaties and prove how “conservative” he is.  And he’d have to go against his bosses and the media they own.  It would be nice though.   (You can see some of the PM’s bosses – private foundations – listed in the G8 Muskoka Declaration in black and white).   Personally, I’d be surprised if they actually go against the UN enough to even abolish the long-gun registry this fall.

Continued… Part 2: some other good points from Jack Layton