The Ottawa Citizen's new online political section - the Gargoyle -  asked for a guest post on the New Democrats current support of the Conservatives; reproduced below:

Jack Layton has spent several days filling the op-ed pages of Canada’s newspapers with explanations of his current reluctance to hold a federal election.  In these editorials, he presents himself on the horns of a dilemma. He boils it down to: will an election help or hurt Canadians?

What he doesn’t say, and as some pundits recently reminded us, New Democrats are often vindicated for positions once considered heretical by political-pundits-and-powers-that-be.

Five years ago, had the government of the day listened to the combined suggestions of Layton, Greenpeace and the Canadian Auto Workers - Southern Ontario would have seen a massive influx of investment in the green auto technology. Enough to save all the jobs lost? No. But, not as many would’ve been lost.

Four years ago, the same week Paul Martin was wooing Belinda Stronach to cross the floor he moved Canada’s troops to the battle fields in Kandahar (from the comparatively safe Kabul based mission.) This set the stage for a steady increase in troop deployment and has resulted in the quagmire we see today.

Three years ago, when the New Democrats launched an anti white-collar crime package it was called anti-business. Had the House of Commons passed its provisions,  would Earl Jones have been caught sooner?

Layton’s New Democrats have shown a propensity to pragmatism.  The problem here is Layton’s former position basically left him no where to maneuver: “an election at all cost” simply wasn’t pragmatic. Where is the leverage? (Incidentally, this is now the Liberal position.) So, he changed his position, took it on the chin and now is seemly “back in charge” of when an election is called (and happily extracting concessions on EI. What did the Liberals receive for their support of Harper?)

This “hold your nose” strategy places New Democrats back in the action. The media are paying attention and the public are thanking Layton for holding off an election before critical legislation is passed.  Again, like the instances above - the Layton pragmatism will be proven right in the end.

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