Since we had so much coverage of the spring Canadian federal election, we wanted to report on this update on the Canadian party leadership:
The United States has never had a female president or vice president; Nancy Pelosi was the highest ranking woman when she was Speaker of the House from 2007-2011. Canada had one female prime minister, the albeit brief tenure of Kim Campbell in 1993.
Now Canada has (temporarily) its first female opposition leader: Jack Layton of the NDP has been diagnosed with an undisclosed cancer and has temporarily turned over the reins of the party to Nycole Trumel until he recovers. Layton had gone through prostate cancer; in stepping down, he said this new cancer wasn't related to the prostate cancer. Layton also had hip surgery, causing him to use the cane during the campaign.
Layton has been the NDP leader for 8½ years, and became the first NDP leader to be the opposition leader. Layton hopes to return to the post by September 19 when Parliament is in session.
Trumel was picked by Layton, who didn't select either deputy leader. Trumel is a new MP but has been in politics for quite awhile; she is a Francophone and handles English in a strong Quebecois accent.
Her introduction into leadership has been overshadowed by her membership in the Bloc Quebecois from 2006 to January of this year. Trumel also belonged to a provincial party, both of which have separatist goals.
Trumel has said that she joined the Bloc Quebecois as a favor to a friend, and that she has never been a separatist.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper understandably took a shot at the interim NDP leader. Though Harper originally worked out a coalition that involved the Bloc Quebecois back when Harper was the opposition leader, and the Conservatives used to suck up to Quebec, Harper's tune on La Belle Province has changed quite a bit.
The NDP knew all of this information about Trumel before she ran for her seat this year, and knew before approving her interim leadership role. And in recruiting new candidates, excluding those with past ties to Bloc Quebecois would make that task far too difficult.
Still outside Quebec, any association with the Bloc Quebecois is sharply negative, though in Quebec, being a Reform Party MP from Western Canada in the 1990s might have had similar feelings.
Regardless of political philosophy, we are hoping Layton makes a quick and effective recovery.
Her provincial membership, ended just a couple of days ago, only after media scrutiny, is with a minor crackpot political party led by a single elected Iranian Canadian who calls for a boycott of a local shoe store because 2% of its shoes are sourced from Israel.
Posted by: CQ | August 05, 2011 at 11:27 AM