“I’m not in opposition, I’m in proposition…we’ve got to have better ideas, better solutions.” Jack Layton is trying to explain the philosophy he hopes will make him leader of the federal New Democratic Party.

As he looked across his backyard on Huron St., a short walk from the U of T campus, Layton said the problem is that Canada’s ideals and values have changed since Brian Mulroney was elected Prime Minister in 1984.

Layton said the Mulroney years were a time when individualism took the place of community, the beginning of the era of tax cuts and deficit-busting, when social programs were curtailed or cut to balance the budget.

“If we go back and rethink some of the policies…” Layton trailed off, leaving the question unanswered: Will Canadians believe this story of paradise lost? Can he convince the NDP’s membership that a vote for Layton will turn back the clock?

Layton’s area of expertise is cities. For 20 years, he has been a Toronto councilor. His platform focuses mainly on helping Canadian cities, which he said are being ignored by higher levels of government.

“The federal government didn’t have a vision for our country, and our city,” Layton said, citing the lack of interest in affordable housing and cuts to post-secondary education.

“The current underfunding benefits the banks and harms the students,” Layton said, suggesting that banks should be taxed more.

“It shouldn’t be that just if you’re rich, you get healthcare, if you’re affluent you get an education.”

Layton said the solution to high tuition is more government funding for universities. “The first thing is, we have to reduce the burden on students,” Layton said. “They end up with huge loans… as big as mortgages 20 years ago.”

Layton finds it ironic that the emphasis on balanced budgets means that “instead of governments borrowing to fund education, students are borrowing to fund education.”

He looks to Europe, where many countries offer free post-secondary education, as a model for how Canada’s higher education system should be run.

“It’s never made sense that education is free from age six to age 18,” but education after high school is expensive, Layton said.

Public transportation is another issue Layton is concerned about. He said chronic underfunding has left Canada’s public transport system in disrepair, forcing Canadians into smog-producing cars for their daily commute. Layton’s solution is to shift some of the taxes Ottawa collects on gasoline over to municipal control. With this money, cities could upgrade their transportation networks – and drivers would pay more money, which might discourage car use.

Layton would combine the gas tax with changes in the way the Goods and Services Tax is collected in order to give municipalities more revenue. With the new money, Layton said, cities could pay for improvements to infrastructure like water and sewage facilities.

Another area Layton would like to see the federal government take action on is affordable housing. Layton said Canada has effectively dismantled the affordable housing program that won a United Nations award in 1993.

The solution, according to Layton, is $1.6 billion of new money for affordable housing.

During Layton’s term as president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, he continued his opposition to free trade agreements. Layton was an opponent of the 1989 Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States. He believes that multilateral trade agreements put the interests of corporations above those of citizens because they increase pressure to privatize public services.

It remains to be seen if Layton’s message will catch on beyond the greens, anti-traders and big-government cheerleaders. Cynics say that behind the talk of new solutions, Layton’s platform looks back to the days when free-spending governments laid out a lavish banquet of public services, while sticking future Canadians with the bill, in the form of skyrocketing deficits and a stagnating economy. And the anti-free trade policies espoused by Layton have failed to interest the public, sated for a decade with a smooth-running economy fueled from increased trade.

Photograph by Kara Dillon