Not such a good Sunday for Layton

Couple of highlights from today's CBC Sunday:

I didn't watch the whole show but I tuned in as they had the political panel discussing the environment. James Moore from the CPC, David McGuinty from the Liberals, and Pat Martin from the NDP.

Pat Martin was pretty useless; he was just like a mandatory NDP voice. They're still trying to push the whole working together in a non partisan fashion to get results for Canadians theme... well that wasn't overwhelmingly successful for the 2006 election, and it continues to make the NDP look off base.

As for the parties that actually know what it takes: James Moore was typically conservative in that when he was asked what his gov't was gonna do about Kyoto, he gave the most long winded answer with no actual substance at all... he used like 500 words to say absolutely nothing. Mcguinty totally called him out on his non response, and even used Conservative terms against them accusing them of cutting and running on Kyoto. Moore brought himself back a little when he tried to make the Liberals seem uncooperative by calling for all of the parties to work on the issue in committee. McGuinty looks like he will be an able performer as the environment critic, but the Libs have to formulate a better response to the constant attacks that they didn't address Kyoto when they had the chance. Moore came off kinda car salesman-like, but it seems like the CPC's doing what would be a very good strategy of formulating this policy in committee which would mean that all the parties have a part in its making. What does this mean? Well, if it fails... it won't solely be the fault of the Conservatives. Not the most hopeful approach, but it might be effective.

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As for Señor Layton and his war on ATM's:

He went against some lady from on of those Bank Orgs. She was way more prepared than Layton. He basically didn't have his info, and tried to use his not so abundant political skills to help himself out, but he came off looking pretty communist actually. That's not inherently bad, but Canadians aren't looking for that. Anyway, the bank lady (i don't remember her name) blasted Layton, and she showed him up by insisting that most of the ATM fees are from private "white label" ATM's that would not be covered by any gov't regulation. These white label ATM's occupy 70% or 75% of the market. Layton had nothing. She also said that it's free to use your own bank's ATM, but will be charged if you use another. She even knocked his research saying that the information he took was from the US, and basically prorated them for the Canadian population: he agreed. She said that info was wrong and gave a bunch of numbers, and then when Layton attacked the Canadian banking system for being way too concentrated compared to the US's, she pulled out more stats and showed that his understanding was flawed. She was ready, he wasn't.

For something Layton used as a cheap ploy to make the NDP relevant, it's pretty much blowing up in his face. This week has just given the NDP more cause to seek a new leader; what they need more desperately are new strategists. They might be clear on the policy side of politics, but they're so impotent when it comes to selling their policies. That's not the way to grow.