Jack saw the high road and said, "Nah."

Today's Winnipeg Free Press continued to follow the latest insanity rising from the Bloc Quebecois.

Sidenote: Someone should pass a memo to Gilles reminding him that he represents the majority of Quebecois about as much as Harper represents the rest of Canada (38.1% and 37.6% respectively).

My favourite part of the Free Press article was how it highlighted the latest NDP press release on the issue.

In issuing their own condemnation, the NDP sought to upstage the Liberals.

A statement issued by the party said New Democrats were the first to propose a parliamentary motion defending Sikhs' five articles of faith, which includes wearing the kirpan at all times.

The 2001 motion "failed to pass when the Liberals refused to support it," the statement said.

"We stand with the Sikh community in solidarity," it added.

Nice. This is exactly the kind of partisan bull dink that people want to get rid of in parliament. To be honest, I would expect more out of the NDP. I would have thought the New Democrats would take the higher ground and win over voters by being collaborative with the Liberals and hammering the CPC to support the Sikh community.

Instead they pulled a Gary Doer.

Four years ago during the 2007 Manitoba election, PC leader Hugh McFadyen announced that if they were elected they would be more active in bringing back the Winnipeg Jets professional hockey team to improve the province's "cool factor." Just when you thought it was the most ridiculous thing anyone could say, New Democrat leader Gary Doer announced that increasing the provinces "coolness" by bringing back the Jets was their idea first. It was the most partisan thing Doer could do because it didn't offer any vision or plan that was an alternative to the PC's announcement - the thrust of their rebuttal was, "we said it first!" And so, anyone gullible enough to believe these two were left with deciding between the party who says they're going to do it now or the party that said they thought of doing it before the other guys. Fantastic.

Yesterday, Jack Layton could have stood up and said that the NDP have been ardent supporters of Sikh civil and political rights and that the Bloc motion is dangerous to Canada. But he had to sneak a jab in at the Liberals.

If anyone was to posit that a federal NDP government would be some sort of shining light of parliamentary civility and cooperation, as opposed to the CPC and LPC, they should note that the press release beings with the sentence: It’s time to stop playing divisive, political games with Canadian’s religious beliefs. And then the party goes on to play political games and skewer their colleagues on a fundamental issue such as human rights.

Was this done because they don't want to be accused of being in cahoots with the LPC? I doubt it. Was it to remind soft-NDP Sikh voters that the NDP is the party for them in the next election? On the surface, this is the most obvious reason. But how big of a voting block can that be in vulnerable NDP ridings like those in Northern Ontario?

Quite simply, what Jack Layton demonstrated - as all the parties are demonstrate day in and day out - is that hyper-partisan rhetoric is not just an necessary evil in the House but it is entirely appropriate behaviour for elected officials. This poisonous behavior - from all parties - is what turns off so many Canadians. It's why all the parties are stalled in the polls. More importantly, it's why I think we need the Greens in the House. I genuinely believe they'll be a breath of fresh air... well, at least for a week or so and then no one will be surprised if they disappoint everyone and mimic the Bloc, NDP, CPC, and LPC. (But what a week that would be, eh?)

I'm disappointed Jack, you saw the high road and you said, "Nah." But lucky for you no one really pays attention to the politicking in Ottawa these days. And with press releases like these you have no one else to blame for the disengagement but yourself.