Members of the left wing have, for some time now, been calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to get his party under control whenever someone steps out of line or proposes something too offensive to them.
I suggest they take a long, hard look in the mirror following their convention this past weekend, and perhaps take some of their own advice.
Friday evening, New Democrats heard from Democrats from the United States. Apparently, President Obama's Democrats are about as popular in Canada as they are in the United States, as even their fellow Statists protested against the Democrats' policies.
On Saturday, delegates chose to pursue an affordable housing strategy. That's great news, since Harper's Conservative government has pursued the largest-ever project to house people who need it.
Also on the agenda were discussions on adding more staff to Service Canada, changing employment insurance, and changing the "net benefit test" under the Investment Canada Act.
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but are these resolutions really the "substance and experience" the NDP promised to Canadians?
Did the NDP really gather 2,000 of its staunchest party supporters, charging anywhere from $99 to $1200 for admission, to discuss how many staff Service Canada should have?
Quite obviously missing from the table: the economy, Mulcair's ridiculous references to "Dutch disease" and how their party plans to compete with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 900,000 net new jobs created since July of 2009.
They would also repeal Budget 2012 and affirm Idle No More's legitimacy and usefulness. Right -- because these sorts of actions are how the NDP sees itself as distancing itself from radical, unrealistic policies.
Oh, and they also support changing the way Canada holds elections, favouring a mixed-member proportional rather than first-past-the-post system.
The problem is these policies have already been implemented or proposed, and they failed. In the case of changing to an MMP system, Ontarians voted on that very question in 2007, and rejected it by 63 per cent. Similar questions have been raised in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island -- and the result is the same.
Pursuing the same failed policies -- specifically those already rejected by voters -- is hardly logical behaviour from a party attempting to showcase its "substance and experience."
On Sunday afternoon, the inevitable came: New Democrats voted on whether they should hide their socialist ideology by removing references to their belief in socialism. The vote was overwhelming in favour of removing references to socialism, but Canadians need not be confused -- Mulcair's NDP remain the same radical, socialist, left-wing party they were before this weekend's convention. They continue to demand gun control and the same ill-advised policies with which Canadians have so famously associated the NDP.
Unfortunately, what was supposed to be an exercise in showing how good the NDP could be at managing the public purse and proposing sensible, balanced policies turned into the usual radical, job-killing, tax-raising, disorganized chaos for which the left wing has always been known.
