Svend and the NDP

Canada is enduring a winter election campaign because New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton decided the ruling Liberals had lost the moral authority to govern.

“ We cannot express confidence in a government under the leadership of a party that cannot be trusted to clean up the politics it tainted,” Layton said in a Nov. 7 speech. Those words began the long countdown to the Nov. 28 non- confidence vote that toppled the government. But if integrity is such an important factor for Layton, why has he acquiesced in accepting Svend Robinson, aconvicted thief, as the NDP’s candidate in Vancouver Centre?

Robinson resigned his seat in Parliament and left public life — briefly, it turns out — in August 2004, after pleading guilty to stealing a costly ring at a jewellery auction.

Certainly, Robinson has served his sentence and is free to return to politics. But as party leader, Layton could have rejected his candidacy.

Layton needs to explain how he can attack the Liberals over integrity, ethics and corruption on the one hand, but then bow to political expediency on the other hand by accepting a high- profile, yet tainted candidate who might just win a seat.

Strange, but isn’t this the same kind of cynical political calculation Layton is so quick to condemn in others? And could he explain again why we are having this election now? Something about ethics and leadership?