Adler: "There is no joy in Dipperville"

Normally, I try not to point out negative things that the NDP does, because I want them to do well so they can siphon votes on the left. However, since they're trying to bash us, instead of the Liberals, I'll post this... courtesy of my EDA President...

There is no Joy in Dipperville
by Charles Adler
June 20/2007

Is the NDP sincere about its concerns about Global warming? Or is the party more concerned with keeping its Anti American fires burning? On the day after Jack Layton's hissy fit about the Conservative Party's choice to sponsor NASCAR, his finance critic, Judy Wasylicia-Leis joined me on the Corus Radio Network program, "Adler on Line."

"Why did the Tories take a page out of George Bush's playbook?" I asked the honourable member whether she was serious in tying yet one more issue to George W. Bush. But that only encouraged her to blather on about how Nascar is an American sport, one that burns too much leaded gasoline (For the record: Nascar doesn't use leaded gas.) and attracts too few Canadian viewers. When asked why the Tories would take their cues on advertising from the NDP, she responded with, "Why should they take their cues from George Bush?"

One can choose to believe that the NDP's problem with Nascar advertising is that it promotes an activity which damages the planet. But isn't it more likely the NDP is simply trying again to rev up it's base of voters by driving the oldest political clunker of all, anti Americanism?

When you check out the demographics of NASCAR, you quickly find out how mass appeal it is. More than 5 million Canadians watch it. Don't take it from me. Ask the people who advertise their products on TSN. Did Nascar originate in the United States? Yes. So did baseball, Pepsi, and American Idol. Canadians are no different than people anywhere else on the planet. When free to make their own choices, they choose involving themselves in activities that the NDP elite opposes, living in the suburbs, driving cars and watching really talented Canadians, like Pierre Bourque, driving them really fast around a track.

In the NDP's world there are no suburbs, there are no malls, and there are no cars. The NDP has this myopic view because it wears lenses that filter out those parts of Canada where it does not harvest very many votes. The average Canadian driving the S.U.V. to Canadian Tire on a Saturday is simply invisible to the NDP. To the extent that the party acknowledges their existence it is only to exist to use them as objects of bigotry. They are to be lampooned and dismissed as people who are American wannabes or people who have no regard for their community or their planet. The NDP would impress many as an honest organization if it were to adopt the slogan "Think Globally. Hate Locally." There would be some truth in that advertising. Sadly, there is so little of it in the name of Jack Layton's sorrowful bunch. New Democratic Party? In what way is its "Let's go back into the jungle where we came from" approach something that feels new? In being a mouthpiece for tenured professors, and overfed public sector union leaders, how does this group really expect to connect with real people, NASCAR fans, if you will? And then there is that nettlesome third word in its brand, "party." When you think of party, you think of a joyous activity. But in the history of this country, has anyone ever met a more joyless aggregation of human beings than those who we hear on radio and see on television speaking for the NDP? There is no joy in Dipperville. As the American poet would say, "The NDP has struck out!"