I don’t care that he killed people, but how dare he kick my dog?

Jack Layton and the NDP have withdrawn their support of the Liberal government, opening the door for an opposition movement that would bring it down and force elections. Layton claims it’s because he’s aghast at the corruption within the party:

“We cannot express confidence in a government that is under the leadership of a party that cannot be trusted to clean up the politics that it tainted,” Layton said in Toronto.

Of course, if that were true, the NDP wouldn’t have spent the last year propping up the Liberals. No, the real reason is that the NDP is no longer able to extract its pound of flesh:

The New Democrats have been the only party willing to keep the government in power and they wrung spending concessions from the Liberals in April in exchange for backing the budget.

But the partnership foundered when the Liberals rejected NDP proposals to limit private medicine. Layton said he was still open to an offer from Prime Minister Paul Martin, but thought this nearly impossible.

“If Mr Martin were to do a 180-degree turn and completely change the position that he gave to us, you always have to be willing to hear somebody out. I don’t think there’s really any possibility of that happening,” he said.

In other words, it’s okay that the Liberals stole billions of dollars of taxpayer money… just as long as they don’t allow privatized healthcare. What shall we call this? The blackmail protocol?

All this to say that I doubt any party will put forth a motion to bring down the government just yet. Nobody wants a Christmastime election. And by the time an election comes around, the Liberals will probably win back enough votes to once again form a minority government, thus making the election an exercise in futility.

Plus ça change…