There’s a provincial election campaign currently ongoing here in New Brunswick, and Jack Layton is in town campaigning for the provincial NDP. On the way to campus today I spied a poster reading “You know the mustache, now meet the man. Jack Layton at the GSA house at 8pm tonight”. How could I pass that up?
There was a pretty good turn-out at the GSA house (which is pub run by the graduate students’ association), the place was packed. Jack chose the back deck as his venu of choice. He hopped up on a bench and spoke for 15 minutes about various issues, introduced the leader of the provincial NDP, and then waded into the crowd to take questions and discuss. Because of where I was standing, mine was the first hand he shook and the first question he answered. I asked him about something that had been bothering me a little since I’d heard the NDP’s new position on it announced at their convention: Afghanistan.
My question was more-or-less this: If we were to pull the army out (as the NDP has called for), what would happen to all the people whom we are protecting from the Taliban and the drug lords?
His answer was basically this:
a) The NDP invited a minister from the Afghan government to their convention to tell them what was needed.
b) What the NDP is calling for is an end to the new mission in the south of the country. He said that up until now things have gone quite well in the country, but the situation in the south is different. It’s shaping up to be the kind of intractable conflict that we’re currently seeing in Iraq. The fighting in the south is also starting to destabilize some of the rest of the country. Not to mention it’s pretty miserable for the people who happen to be living in the war zone.
c) What we should be doing instead is a 4 part plan involving diplomacy, aid, rebuilding infrastructure, and providing security. He also stressed the need for help from neighbouring countries, like Pakistan.
He’s probably got a point about the fight in the south being un-winnable. I’ll have to think a bit more about the rest.
Jack (yeah, first name basis now…) went on to answer questions for almost two hours. He fielded all manner of things, from IP law to the Indian Act to student debt, to why he became an NDPer instead of a Liberal or a Conservative (He was a Trudeau supporter until Trudeau invoked the war-measures act). He explained the Kyoto treaty better than I’ve ever heard it. He offered practical advice on things like how lobby UNB to make their campus more accessible and how to respond to anti-abortion protesters.
I was pretty impressed. Admittedly, the crowd was pretty “pro-Jack” but even so I thought he handled himself very well (even after his second beer). He was a lot better than he is on TV or the Radio. I did notice that when he was making his short speech to the crowd he was a little shakier than when he was interacting with people directly. I can understand why some people are excited about him.
I left with a button that says “I think, therefore I am NDP”.