The NDP is very concerned about some new invention called "the economy"

OTTAWA–Stephen Harper needs to put himself in the shoes of the growing numbers of laid-off workers and take more aggressive action to tackle a brewing economic crisis, says NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Layton issued his own financial warning yesterday, grimly predicting 2008 will be the year when the "squeeze" on the middle class becomes more intense.

"We can see working people just losing their jobs by the thousands in the manufacturing, the forestry sectors," Layton told reporters.

Er, what's the deal with the NDP pretending to care [or indeed know -ed] about the economy?

After all, doesn't Jack Layton remember what he demanded in November 2006?

Layton said the NDP-proposed amendments include the following:

• To rename the act the Healthy Air and Climate Act, indicating that Kyoto Protocol targets, which were absent from the original bill, would become a key priority of the revised act;
• To set targets that Canada must meet, such as the Kyoto Protocol 2008 to 2012 targets, an 80 per cent reduction in emissions below 1990 levels, by 2050;
• To set interim targets at five year intervals between 2015 and 2050;
• To give new authority to the environment minister that would allow him or her to designate significant areas under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act;
• And a "just-transition fund" to help the automobile move from voluntary to mandatory targets.

The changes would effectively gut the Conservative legislation as it currently stands.

The aim is to establish "real targets" based on science, that address the growing climate change crisis facing Canada and the world, and to set firm timelines to begin controlling major polluters, such as the automobile sector, Layton said.

You can have your economy, Jack Layton. Or you can have your Kyoto. You cannot have both.