Two Critics (and one bonus!) who should caucus with the NDP, even if they don't have Ministries:

Two critics who should caucus with the NDP, even if they don't have Ministries:

The NDP and Jack Layton have an enormous opportunity to frame the terms of the debate over the next four years. As this election campaign has proven beyond a doubt, the right message, repeated to the right people, will propagate through the Canadian electorate and can generate real change at the ballot box- but it's up to the Opposition to present a message to Canadians that gets them thinking about important issues that have been skirted by the other parties and national media. 

To that end, there are two critics that the NDP should have in their caucus, who should be consulting with public leaders in these fields and broadcasting their results through twitter, Facebook, and any other venues which youth consult, in order to leverage that mass exposure into national media attention and force the Conservative government to address them.

1. Public Transport- An Official Critic for Public Transport would consult with the heads of public transit agencies in cities such as Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver to get an understanding of how these big cities have tried to manage their high volumes and unique challenges, and to more clearly ascertain what their real funding needs are to maintain and even improve their services, and then hammer away with those facts at every opportunity. They should also be networking with equivalent officials in smaller hubs such as Québec, Halifax, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, Edmonton, and Winnipeg to find out what these areas have tried, what obstacles they face, and again broadcast these facts and needs at every opportunity. 

This critic is important because over the next four years, it is a near certainty that gas will rise to $1.40/L and stay there, meaning that more Canadians than ever will be depending on public transit to get around. We need evidence to back up our assertions that this will be very important in the suburbs, and that public transit is a better solution than gas price controls and new roads, and once we have it (many would say that we in fact already do) we can't shut up about it for a second. This critic would ideally already have connections within the public transport agencies, use public transit themselves to commute, so they know how expensive and frustrating it is in most of Canada.

2. Official Languages- A Critic for Official Languages would go a long way to shoring up support in Québec and making sure that the NDP surge is sustainable. The sovereigntist movement has never really been about the independence of the political unity of the province of Québec, but rather the survival and development of the French language in North America. The Bloc's problem was that their vision of the French fact excluded the hundreds of thousands of franco-Ontariens, Acadiens, and francophones de l'Ouest, making it narrow and limiting, encouraging a drain on traditional french-speaking places as their youth fled to opportunities in Québec.

This critic is important because over the next four years, we have the potential to change forever the Québec-Canada antagonistic relationship into a harmonious and collaborative English-French relationship. This critic needs to rassemble community leaders from marginalized francophone communities outside of Québec, and put them directly in contact with similar organizations in Québec, with the goal of encouraging solidarity within the french-language community from coast to coast. This critic would ideally be French-speaking, represent a riding not in Québec, but have strong ties to Québec organizations such as the Office de la langue française as well as a working relationship with the Comissioner of official languages.

BONUS

3. Environment- The Critic for the Environment should rightly be Elizabeth May. The Green party winning a seat is a mixed blessing- the Green party tends to let other parties believe that they can let environmental issues slide to a greater degree with the Greens around, because the people who are really motivated by those issues will vote for the Greens anyway. If the people truly susceptible to an environmental message are always going to vote Green, the parties can safely downplay the environmental message and kick the can even further down the road. 

This doesn't have to be so. The NDP can incorporate Elizabeth's proven track record of environmental activism into their own party fold, letting her keep her association with the Greens but giving her a platform louder than previously thought possible. By showing that they are willing to defer to the Green party leader on the Environmental front (while still maintaining a degree of control over the message), the NDP can build bridges between them and Green-minded Canadians across the country. Four years from now, we may all be a lot greener than we ever imagined we could be, so the NDP working with the Greens straight away seems a prudent strategic choice and fully coherent with the NDP's message of sustainability and collaboration.

Next time: 'Like herding cats'- what happens when a third of all MPs are noobs?