One on One with Jack Layton

In many ways, Federal NDP leader Jack Layton is the Rodney Dangerfield of Canadian politics. In this country, he simply gets no respect.
While pundits and politicos alike have all but written off the NDP as a viable option, Jack (as his office staff call him) will tell you that his party is building towards governance with principled policies for the “every-man.”
Here are some excerpts from my interview with Jack back in May.

Mehfil: How are you doing health wise? Has the cancer affected your work schedule? (Note: Mr. Layton was diagnosed with prostate cancer in late 2009.)
Jack Layton: Things are good. The doctors seem happy and when the doctors are happy, I’m happy. It doesn’t seem to have affected my schedule, and so far the energy level is good. The good news is that my dad had the same type of prostate cancer and beat it so we’re confident.

What does Jack Layton do for fun outside of politics?
I spend as much time as I can with my family. The joy of our lives these days is our nine month wonderful granddaughter born to my daughter Sarah. Otherwise, we (he and his wife Olivia) have always been into things that are physical. When we have free time we do things such as white water canoeing, bike rides together on our tandem bikes, and physical holidays.

If elected, would the NDP maintain existing levels of immigration?
We would probably increase them. Or at least make sure that the targets were met, because the targets are not being met. We typically are 50,000 or so short of the target each year. If you do that for 10 years you are half a million people short. We need those people because the folks that have been here a while aren’t reproducing themselves at a pace sufficient to ensure a prosperous economic future. And, just like a family, in some ways, gets involved with childbirth in order to ensure that in your old age you have someone to look after you – well, we need that for the whole country.

Why aren’t we meeting our current immigration targets?
First of all the staffing levels at some of the (immigration) offices around the world have been inadequate to ensure that you can process people in a reasonable period of time. So if you want to bring a family member over it can take forever. And, that starts even with something as basic as getting visas for family events. I mean you have a wedding in the family and you can’t get visas? This is nuts! This is not family friendly.
(Secondly), the appeal process. If you’re turned down (for immigration) there ought to be a proper appeal process. In fact, that is already provided for in the law but it has never been implemented. So that should change, so that at least if you’re turned down you get some natural justice.

The Conservatives often talk about the millions of dollars that they have allocated towards settlement services. In your opinion, have those funds been allocated appropriately?
There’s still more that needs to be done. For instance people who come here are given points on the immigration system. The immigration officer says wow you have all these degrees, you have all this professional experience; isn’t that fabulous we’ll give you these points. Then you come to Canada and you find the door slammed in your face on (finding a job in your field of experience). But you have to pay the rent so you connect with the community and they say, well probably the best thing is to get out there, drive a cab or get out there and work at the back of a restaurant. I know it’s not what you’re trained for but at least you can pay the rent. And before you know it, you’re working 12 to 14 hours a day; you’ve got a person becoming depressed and feeling under-used and in fact it was false advertising. And how do you overcome that?
We need these professional people. It’s not that the immigration officer was wrong in giving points to these people. Because these are exactly the type of people we need. But let’s have more tightly focused labour market information available to people so that they know exactly what they’re getting into. Let’s make sure that there are training and certification opportunities even before you immigrate. We have the Internet now. It’s not impossible to do this type of thing.
Plus, we need mentorship programs because you’ll come here and you’ll have a fabulous resume – the problem is that you don’t have the networking and contact opportunities.

Can the NDP ever form government in Canada?
Of course. We have done in several provinces. What this shows is that there is step-by-step growth of the New Democratic Party.
One of our biggest obstacles had been that we had never won a seat in Quebec. We now have a seat in Quebec. If you look at the 2000 election in Quebec we came fifth, we had two per cent of the vote and we were behind the Marijuana Party. Now if you look at today’s polls in Quebec, we’re tied with the Conservatives and the Liberals. It’s a growing process.
And look the MPs we have. Half of our members of parliament we have, have experience in government, either provincial cabinet ministers or municipal councillors making wise and important decisions at the local level. It’s not that much different in Ottawa to make wise or important decisions.

Some political pundits say that the only way that the NDP can form Government is by moving towards the centre of the political spectrum. How do you respond to that?
We’re a party that stands for something. And if people are saying that you have to abandon what you stand for – I’m going to say no. I actually don’t think that that’s what people are looking for. They want a party that stands for something.

When do you think that there’s going to be an election?
It’s always hard to predict. Our effort is to try and get results for people on an ongoing basis. So we’ll try and keep that up. On the other hand, if Mr. Harper is refusing to work with other parties and he is doing his “my way or the highway” drill . . . which I think is very unfortunate because he only represented 38 per cent of the vote; 62 per cent of people voted against. The overwhelming percentage of people didn’t want him to be prime minister. You would think he would be working with other parties. Instead, it’s my way or the highway, take it or leave it, bluff me into an election, we’ve got more money than you.
(Last fall) we went to the prime minister and said that . . . if you’re willing to help unemployed people get through this winter by extending the period they can be on EI (Employment Insurance), the cost of which would be about a billion dollars. If you’re willing to do that we’ll vote for it (the budget) and we’ll make sure it passes all the way through, avoiding an election but getting some help for tens of thousands of people. And that happened. So it’s kind of a pragmatic approach we’re taking (with the minority government). People might say is that an example of moving to the centre? I would say it’s a matter of applying your principles in a pragmatic way in order to get results.

With the emergence of the Asian superpowers, the EU and other regions, it seems that Canada’s influence in the international community is diminishing or at the very least changing. What should be Canada’s role in the international community?
We should play a lead role on certain key strategic issues. Climate change for one. Canada has gone from being a voice that was respected to a voice that is being condemned.
Canada is sinking in international reputation. It’s time for us to re-establish our voice in the world as peacekeepers. I think we’re ranked something like 52nd in the world in terms of number of peacekeepers that we provide to UN missions. Canada is now going to have some real work to do to re-establish ourselves on the international stage. It can be done. Look at how Obama is turning around the world’s perception of the US. We’re only a year in his presidency and things have changed dramatically; Canada should be a part of that change.

Andy Radia is political columnist based in Vancouver, B.C. His articles have been published in the Vancouver Sun, Winnipeg Free Press and Vancouver Metro. He can be contacted through his website at www.radia.ca