Thoughts About Jack Layton

While I preferred the Jack Layton who held Paul Martin directly responsible for homeless deaths, to the "serious" statesman who wouldn't let his MPs heckle the war-criminal criminal moron psychopath bush II when that piece of shit slithered across our border and was making noises about addressing our Parliament, I always respected Layton.

I said numerous times that he should have gotten more credit for trying to respect the will of the electorate when they gave first, a Liberal (under Paul Martin) and then a harpercon minority. I approved of his reasons for pulling the plug on the detestable Martin government. I approved of his mostly consistent opposition to harper. I especially approved of his saving Canada from Ignatieff's reckless, bizarre election threats back in 2009.

Credit where credit is due, I praised ALL the opposition MPs for forcing that election last spring, even though the partisan stupidity, ignorance, and apathy of the Canadian electorate turned everything into Hell. But credit, especially, to Jack Layton, who consciously subjected himself to the rigours of a national election while in recovery from prostate cancer, all to uphold respect for our parliamentary democracy and respect for the rule of law. Alas!

I won't do anything but mention the existence of the three "scandals" that dogged him. Two weren't scandals at all, but misreporting of the facts. The third was barfed-out 15 years after the fact by a member of the Toronto Police "Service" which gets its kicks ripping the prosthetic legs of amputees, was spread by the vile scum who write for the Sun newspapers, and embraced by blogging tories and Liberal bloggers lacking brain cells.

And I won't quote anything from the vile rant penned by talentless, stupid hack christie belchforth in response to the genuine outpouring of grief and sadness at Layton's passing. That's what she is, that's what she does. Someone on Dawg's Blog said that was through as a serious commentator. She's been done for a while. Her point of no return was when she joined in with Rosie DiMoron to look at leaked info about Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin. That was the day that belchforth decided to stand-up for torture by smearing a brave and honourable Canadian.

When you've dug yourself into a pit that you'll never escape from, you could stop digging, but that would require the self-awareness to know where you are. If christie does know where she is, it's also possible that she likes it. It's also possible that she digs mechanically, not knowing how to do anything else.

Regardless, here's the thing: Jack Layton is ten times the Canadian that belchforth will ever be. Unlike belchforth (and her ilk) Layton opposed torture. Layton opposed denying Parliament its right to hold governments accountable. Layton honoured the NDP by withholding its approval of the sickening scam that continues to hide the reality of how low harper has dragged this country and which has helped that rancid man escape the prison cell to which he remains inevitably headed.

Layton had, for many years running, been the federal leader that most Canadians respected and liked. That's a testimony to his humanity as well as to the still hopeful character of the electorate, however much we failed our past, present, and future, in the last election. Layton never got to be prime minister, but it will be eternally to his credit, that of any NDP leader so far, he came the closest. Let's work to see his dream realized. Let's give Canada a social-democratic national government.