With hallucinations of becoming Prime Minister dancing in his head, Jack Layton has taken up the cause of the common consumer by calling for the regulation of spiraling gas prices and an investigation into those who set them. The man who once suggested we all ride bicycles to work, tax oil producers and go green on every corner is now concerned that the average SUV skipper will lose not only their expensive perms in frustration but the determination to vote NDP unless he peddles to their rescue.

Of course, that isn't all Jack has to juggle on a daily basis. The NDP did not grow out of some love of nature and the need to conserve, but out of the Depression, the Labour Movement, and socialist ideals that, while never having fully taken hold in this country, have, in the hands of the NDP, kept the Right in check and "the little guy" more than a joke at the policy table.

But the little guy needs to work, producing everything from coffee grinders to bottle caps, though mostly cars, trucks, trains, and the parts that go into them. Ed Broadbent didn't win seat after seat in Oshawa because he thought recycling, peddle power and wind turbines were the way of the future, after all.

Jack Layton has the unenviable job of pleasing an old base of support dependant on healthy economies and low fuel and energy prices while appealing to a new-found constituency that the NDP seems to find itself championing by nature of being "Left." It's a group that has spent years watching David Suzuki and The Nature Of Things, has grown up with the idea that the Blue Box will help save the environment, that everything will be just fine if the cans are sorted from the plastic while low wattage lighting illuminates dinner and the nightly news on TV.

So now we have the new champion of all things green trying to still be the old champion of all things big, heavy, and wasteful. It's a difficult spectacle to watch, and a confusing one when you consider that the man has more university degrees than bicycle shorts. You would think he would see the contradiction, the outright stupidity, of pushing for alternative forms of energy, lowering our dependence on fossil fuel, and at the same time trying to put the breaks on pump prices.

It's a bit like trying to get people to stop shooting smack while taking pushers to task for charging too much.

But there should be no doubt that "Smiling Jack" is a politician, not an activist. He likes the limelight, the attention, and be damned whether his policy platform has more holes in it than moth-ravaged bedroom linen.

When the collective mood in this country was that of fear and anger following the London bombings, Jack the Peacenik turned into Jack the Ripper, giving his full support to the war-mongering words of General Rick Hillier and his famous "scumbag" comments. Jack has argued for a freeze in military spending, and was front and centre decrying our potential participation in missile defence. Yet, instead of playing his party's historical role as the public's conscience and questioning our participation in Afghanistan, he decided to get out the pompoms and cheer.

And seeing a great opportunity to dive in and look busy with the softwood trade dispute, Jack said it was time to play hardball with the US, tax oil exports, and stick it to Uncle Sam where it hurts. Now, the idea here is to get the US to stop levying duties on our softwood lumber, so that we can sell wood, wood, and more wood to our friendly, house-building neighbours to the south.

The last time I checked, increased lumber sales generally don't help the environment, not unless your idea of a healthy environment is millions of hectares of nice, fresh clear-cut to not hang your hat on.

The easy retort to all this is that it's naive to worry about such concerns when the immediate impact of such decisions involves recession or worse. But fuel is never going to be cheap again, and will run out, or at least become so expensive and impractical to find and pump that it might as well be considered gone. We are in for a serious readjustment in lifestyle, standard of living, and prosperity in the coming decades. We adjust now, or adjust then, but what people consider sticker shock now is nothing to what awaits us, and it's time to get used to it.

Jack Layton could go a long way in helping us do that if he would find the courage to push for the alternatives we need to find and adopt quickly. But I guess he has more immediate priorities.