Jack Layton says he not feeling the
pressure of trying to outdo former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, who came close in 1988
to forming the official opposition with a party record of 43 seats.
"None," said
Layton standing on a deck overlooking the seventh hole of Pippy Park Golf Club
in St. John's.
"We are actually asking for Prime
Minister and government, which axiomatically would mean that we had exceeded
that particular achievement."
Layton also played down the shadow that Bob Rae's NDP government in Ontario casts on the federal New
Democrats.
"I think you are going to have to ask that question
of Mr. Dion. He's on Mr. Dion's team," he said, referring to the fact Rae, a
longtime New Democrat, is now an a Liberal MP in Leader Stephane Dion's
caucus.
Others NDP movers and shakers confide privately
that Rae's government, which racked up a huge deficit from 1990-95,
still leaves huge doubts in the public mind about how the party would do if it ever
formed the government in Ottawa.
Layton said he wouldn't run a deficit and drew
attention to the other provincial NDP governments that always balanced the
books, including Saskatchewan's Tommy Douglas' 17 balanced budgets in a
row.
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