How would Toronto's media react to THIS Rob Ford scenario?

The frustration is unspeakable!

The antics of Rob Ford are so infuriatingly embarrassing that they taint every single citizen of Toronto with a cloud of shame. At least that is the inescapable impression one gets from reading The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Now Magazine and a variety of other self-obsessed media orifices is the world's most world-classiest city.

If the media is any reflection of popular will, Ford has made being a Torontonian in 2014 so overwhelmingly humiliating, it is mind-boggling that Ontario's entire capitol city hasn't filled up an armada of U-Hauls and embarked on a mass exodus to more progressive pastures, such as in the enlightened Pacific metropolis of Vancouver.

Still, Ford seems to enjoy unassailable popularity with a subhuman class of citizen known by the sobriquet Ford Nation. But the cultivated people who comprise the rest of the city understand the damage caused by the daily assault on the self-esteem of the thinking Torontonian as a result of being vicariously associated with Rob Ford.

Toronto's media nabobs have assumed a near-unified voice that was best expressed by an outraged protester at a City Hall demonstration, her pain reflected in her sour,  prune-faced declaration:

"The world is talking about us, they're laughing at us, and they're finding it to be very funny!"

Remember, that is a bad thing! A very bad thing!

Ford has used cocaine, he has been drunk in public, and yet his support remains rock-solid. But what if Ford was to do something far worse than any of these past transgressions?

What if Ford were to be involved in the type of scandal where he was caught in a brothel, perhaps of the type that exploited poor, immigrant women, turning them into virtual sex slaves?

Imagine Rob Ford being caught by police naked in such a place. Then, with a prostitute leaving his rented cubicle holding a kleenex freshly damp from Ford's venereal excretion, he lied to a police officer and claimed he was just getting a "shiatsu."

Then imagine if higher-ups in the police department colluded to keep the matter a secret.

A "community clinic." Seriously?

Of course, though we're used to Ford lying, what an insult to the intelligence of every one of his constituents it would be, if when caught, he tried to excuse himself with the laughably implausible claim that he mistook a place that any teenager would recognize as a hand-job parlor for a "community clinic."

Surely then, all of Canada's media would be clamoring for Ford's head and the public along with them?

Let's take this scenario another step. What if this denizen of sleazy, disease-ridden bordellos were to contract a "mystery illness" which he and his family refused to disclose? Were Rob Ford to tragically die from a malady of that nature, there would be no end to the media speculation of the nature of the illness,  how he came by it, and why it was being kept a secret.

Or take it just one more unlikely step further. What if Rob Ford's wife, who has no real noteworthy political accomplishment to her name, and who is a dismal public speaker with no real achievement in life other than being the wife of a famous person, was then practically dragooned into running for mayor?

No doubt the media would be united in reviling such a candidacy, wouldn't they?

Naturally, this is all just fantasizing. Nothing so far-fetched could happen in real life, could it?

A dramatic reading of Olivia Chow's self-aggrandizing tripe

  

Captain eHealth endorses the Velvet Touch Widow

Two people who have one thing in common -  their joy in wasting your tax dollars

Funny how Olivia Chow isn't embarrassed about being associated with this drug addict

Is rabble.ca implying that Jack Layton was a closeted homosexual?

The great playwright of the English Renaissance Christopher Marlowe wrote Edward II about the Gay son of the monarch Edward Longshanks (modern audiences might know the first Edward best as the villain  of Mel Gibson's Braveheart).

Setting the tone, the play opens with Edward II's special friend Gaveston reading a letter from the new monarch which includes the lines:

My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,

Shall with their goat-feet dance an antic hay.

Sometime a lovely boy in Dian's shape,

With hair that gilds the water as it glides,

Crownets of pearl about his naked arms,

And in his sportful hands an olive tree

To hide those parts which men delight to see

The far-left website rabble.ca, published by the same-sex spouse of NDP Deputy Leader Libby Davies, is promoting an event called:

Pride, Prejudice and Politics: Jack Layton and the lessons of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II  

In its description, they note:  As an undergraduate student at McGill, Jack Layton read and copiously annotated his copy of Marlowe's play. Join us as Dr. Jason Boyd connects the dots between Jack Layton and this classic 16th Century play.

It should be interesting which "dots" they connect between the former NDP leader about whom there was much speculation, and the tragic Edward II who also met an untimely end.

Even the Globe's John Doyle thinks the CBC's multi-million dollar commercial for the NDP was a piece of crap

From John Doyle's review of Jack, the CBC's biopic of the NDP's late leader Jack Layton:

The movie is poor, an empty triumph of the sort of sentimentality that doesn’t resonate at all and doesn’t entertain. And it doesn’t matter, because what really happened at the end of Jack Layton’s life has already had its impact.

CBC supports Israeli Apartheid Week-promoting hate site, rabble.ca

UPDATE MARCH 6 1:04 PM; A friend who understands these things just sent me a tip that the ad on rabble's page for "Jack" is hard-coded or inserted on the server side, which suggests rabble may have inserted it without CBC's permission but as of yet it is uncertain.

In either case, the CBC invited the hatemongers from rabble to a special preview screening of the film. Who better to serve as sycophants for a feature length commercial for the New Democratic Party?

-----

The website rabble.ca is paid for primarily with funding from unions and NDP-linked organizations like the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and is published by the same-sex spouse of the New Democratic Party's Deputy Leader, Libby Davies.

So where better for the CBC to advertise its tax-funded paean to deceased NDP leader Jack Layton than the online mouthpiece for his party's radical wing.

Except advertising from commercial or outside sources is a very rare thing on rabble.Which is no surprise, since any credible organization would eschew association with something that has billed itself as the "media-sponsor" of the anti-Semitic Israeli Apartheid Week.

It's therefore a little surprising that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is using tax dollars to subsidize rabble's hate by paying for ads there.

Then again, maybe not...

UPDATE: rabble's union stooge commentator who compared Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Adolf Hitler and Conservative policies to the Nazi Holocaust gets a big spread in rabble lavishing fawning praise on the CBC's hagiography to Layton.

It seems missing from the production is information the type of cancer to which Layton succumbed and the real reason it was never disclosed.

Canada's Official Opposition to introduce Bill outlawing blasphemy against Mohammed and Jack Layton

OTTAWA - In the wake of protests by Canadian Muslims insulted by a YouTube video mocking Islam's prophet Mohammed and comments by Conservative MP Rob Anders about the New Democratic Party's former leader who is worshiped as a deity withing his party, Canada's Official Opposition announced plans to introduce a Bill outlawing blasphemy.

"The Supreme Court has ruled that there are limits to free speech in Canada" said Opposition House Leader Nathan Cullen,  "and surely insults to divine figures like Jack Layton and the Prophet Mohammed cannot be accepted in civil society."

Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair was quick to clarify that the proposed Bill would not impose new  restrictions on rights Canadians already enjoy. "These blasphemy regulations will not curtail Canadians' right to insult Jesus, Christianity, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and other religions beside Islam and the deities and prophets they hold sacred. But just as you cannot shout fire in a crowded theater, it is now globally accepted that insults to the Prophet affect his followers in a way that inevitably leads to murder and violence."

NDP Deputy Leader Libby Davies explained why Jack Layton is to be included as a protected figure withing the blasphemy Bill.  "Obviously the right wing neo-Cons like Rob Anders learned nothing from the death threats Christie Blatchford received following the blasphemous article she wrote about Jack days after his death", she stated. "Jack is sitting in heaven with the Prophet Mohammed where the two are now dear friends, and they are both furious at the posthumous insults they are expected to endure. Obviously stronger measures are needed and legislation is the only way to appease their fury."

Penalties in the proposed legislation would be beheading for a first offense, with subsequent infractions punishable by compelling the offender to listen to children's entertainer Raffi sing his rendition of Jack Layton's deathbed letter.

The half-wits who deified Jack Layton are furious over tributes to Peter Lougheed

From David "Chinga tu madre" Climinhaga:

With his state funeral yesterday afternoon, the official adoration of former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed moved beyond canonization into deification. 

If other Canadians happened to pause and listen to what was actually being said in Calgary’s 57-year-old Jubilee Auditorium, which was broadcast by the CBC, they could be forgiven for wondering if we Albertans had collectively taken leave of our senses.

Well, Chinga, now you know how the rest of us feel about the saccharine adulation over the late "Community Clinic" Jack Layton.

Is the NDP accusing Obama of running a repressive regime?

In his last election campaign, Jack Layton said he was `Canada`s Barack Obama` (obviously wishful thinking from a socialist with with a lot less intellect and charisma than the former Harvard law prof).

Is Layton`s party now accusing Obama of running a repressive regime from which refugees need sanctuary?

It's Zombie Layton Day!

Cynical, exploitative manipulation is guiding the New Democratic Party's morbid, masturbatory Jack Layton Day festivities across Canada today.

Jack Layton was an okay guy whose only significant political talent was the ability to convey the image of being likable, particularly to people who never actually met him. (I did many years ago and found him smug and arrogant at the time - but I heard he matured and improved later.)

Let's be honest about this - there is no Layton legacy. The man was lucky enough to have capitalized on the implosion of the Bloc Quebecois and pick up some parliamentary seats in Quebec. Period. Nothing he did will have a lasting affect on Canada.

Fifty years from now, no one will remember who Jack Layton was - hell, five years from now, for the few people who still think of him , he`ll be just someone who was the subject of a bad CBC drama.

I was never a fan of Layton`s politically, but would have been happy to let him rest in peace. However the NDP, which was crass enough to take his corpse on a political tour, now is trying to exhume their late leader for selfish, abject political promotion.

If that`s the game the NDP wants to play, with their cheerleaders at the CBC and The Toronto Star, then we need to call it for what it is. Jack Layton Day is a big public, partisan political commercial.

So if anyone bothers to tell me "it`s Layton Day," I`m going to respond, "Jack off!"

Let's take back August 22!

The NDP wants to use August 22 as part of their ongoing effort to beatify Canada's all-time most famous mediocre politician.

It might sound innocuous, but it's part of a sneaky, insidious, never-ending campaign to weasel the NDP's socialist agenda into the mainstream by deifying the smug image of their late snake oil salesman,  Smilin "Community Clinic" Jack Layton.

So let's take back the normal calendar day of August 22 that they want to abuse and here's how.

memegenerator.net lets you make posters online easily and free (there may be others, this is just the one I know about offhand).

mine!

Go there and create your own Jack Layton Day poster. Put it on your facebook page, post it in the comments here, spread it around.

August 22 used to be a nice, wholesome day. Let's keep it that way.

Create and embed your own!

Stephen Taylor did this one:

'Tin Foil' Tom Mulcair`s NDP: Khadr good, Black bad

Law abiding Canadians concerned about their public safety have just had their worst fear realized.

We should be arming ourselves and barricading our homes at the terrifying prospect that convicted white collar criminal Conrad Black will soon be roaming the streets of Toronto and Ottawa. Black was convicted  in a Chicago courtroom on fraud charges in a convoluted case that a great many Canadian lawyers believe was unjustified and unproven. Meanwhile, self-confessed murderer and terrorist Omar Khadr should be given free reign of of land, an apology, and a huge compensation package for the inconvenience of incarceration after he murdered a US Army Medic and permanently maimed another following his surrender to American forces upon loss of a firefight in Afghanistan.

The NDP wants to keep this guy out...

At least that`s the way NDP leader Tom Mulcair seems to view things, showing that the NDP`s great new hope is no more competent than his predecessor, `Community Clinic` Jack Layton.

Conrad Black may be the personification of much that is bad about capitalism, from his raiding of the Dominion stores pension fund to the libel threats he would routinely issue to any journalist who tried to expose some of his shifty activities. But he has also made very real contributions to Canada in many ways, including raising the standard of journalism in founding The National Post, his authorship of historical works, and his often unheralded philanthropic contributions.

And the fact remains that while Conrad Black will likely continue to contribute to Canada, he most certainly has never or will never kill anyone or participate in an act of violent terrorism.

Contrast that with the unrepentant, violent Islamic terrorist Khadr, and the NDP's embrace of him, and it's easy to see how Mulcair and his party simply can't stop acting like idiots. As Libby Davies, the NDP's clownish Deputy Leader and resident 9/11 conspiracy theorist told CBC News, ""The whole situation has been quite a travesty since Day One in terms of the process that [Khadr] had to go through."

while they want to let this guy in

Most Canadians seem to think the travesty is that a murderous terrorist may soon have free reign to walk among us with the blessing of the Official Opposition.

The ridiculous example NDP leader Mulcair gave when complaining about the "double standard" applied to Black's request to return to Canada was to compare Black's case to that of a violent criminal convicted of shooting a police officer.

By failing to distinguish between a peaceful man with an admittedly mixed record and a violent, bloodthirsty criminal, the NDP isn't highlighting the hypocrisy of the Conservative government, they're reiterating their own incompetence and unsuitability to ever become the government themselves.





UPDATE: Never let it be said Tin Foil Tom has no sense of humour - with buffoonish Vancouver East MP Libby Davies at his side, Mulcair jokes, "we have the team to get the job done!"

I assume he means this job?

Jack Layton: A political failure, but a master of "Raffi Socialism"

Toronto Life has a harsh assessment of Jack Layton's dubious legacy written by Stephen Marche:

Raffi socialism is not wrong; it’s much worse. It’s content in its impotence. Its constituent parts are feel-good, conventional, childlike ideas about how the world should work, substituting bike lanes or an empty critique of capitalism for practical policies that would actually improve the lives of Canadians. Today’s left-wing leaders, following in Layton’s footsteps, like to whine—about whether the head of the CRTC is bilingual or not, or about why we don’t have more bike lanes, or about the need for a hockey concussion registry.

Raffi socialism is downtown Toronto’s cheerfully useless contribution to national politics, born from the dysfunction of city hall. To become a councillor or mayor, you have to win a lot of votes, and then when you do, you’re only one decision maker out of 45. The OMB and the province make all the substantial decisions anyway, so it’s quite easy to praise public transit and parks without ever having to go to the trouble of finding the money to build them, and it’s equally easy to shout your respect for taxpayers and commuters while doing nothing to alleviate congestion. Rhetoric, alongside basic constituency business, is the job; the innovators of city hall invent new modes of political symbolism. As a councillor, Layton mastered Raffi socialism. Ford is inventing gridiron conservatism.

The Conservatives loved Layton; they loved his tireless impotence. No doubt Harper would like Layton’s legacy to live forever. The Conservative prime minister, elected with barely 40 per cent of the vote, faces no real Opposition caucus.

Brian Topp's top NDP endorser Libby Davies says, "Free the Sea Hitler!"

Libby Davies, a 9-11 conspiracy theorist who is the most vociferously anti-Israel MP in Canada's parliament, wants Prime Minister Stephen Harper to tell Israel to release the impounded Canadian Gaza boat (aka The Sea Hitler).

She is joined by another of the New Democrats' lesser lights, rookie MP Alexandre Boulerice, who had first endorsed the Sea Hitler, but after a word from Thomas Mulcair and the late Jack Layton, cowered away from his earlier position and retracted his endorsement. Now that he, like Davies, has endorsed Brian Topp for the NDP leadership, they apparently have hopes to shift their party to more extremist policies should their candidate emerge the winner in the March 24 leadership contest.

The Sea Hitler boat that attempted to break Israel's arms embargo of Hamas-controlled Gaza.was an attention-seeking, politically-motivated stunt  promoted by Canadian groups with close ties to Iranian government interests. Prior to its sailing, the Canadian government explicitly warned the Sea Hitler not to embark on its journey, calling it "a dangerous provocation." The Sea Hitler extremists ignored their government's warning, and their vessel was impounded by the Israeli Navy last November and its occupants deported back to Canada.  Gaza's ruling party, Hamas, is an Iranian proxy that is listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian and US governments, along with those of the European Union, and is committed to the destruction of Israel  and the killing of Jews in its founding Charter.

Davies proudly messaging from a Sea Hitler support rally in Paris attended by notorious anti-Semites

Libby Davies makes the NDP look foolish with the withdrawl of an embarrassing motion

Last week, Vancouver East MP and NDP Leadership hopeful Libby Davies withdrew Motion 141, a proposal she had made to parliament on June 6th to reduce the waiting period for recent immigrants to collect Canadian government-paid old-age pensions.

Davies who clearly has ambitions to replace Jack Layton as NDP leader finally clued in to the fact that legislation proposed by the Official Opposition will garner attention, and when the NDP gets attention, it's usually of the negative variety.

Davies explained in an article she wrote for her spouse's website today that, "We have a national media scrutinizing us as never before (I learned this lesson well with motion 141 just recently). We have a majority Conservative government who see three opposition parties without permanent leaders, and easy pickings ahead. For those of us in the NDP caucus, we will need to be fully engaged and active in Parliament as never before."

It's good to learn that Davies thinks the NDP should finally take their role in parliament seriously, even if that new course is motivated by fear of embarrassment in the media rather than professionalism and conscientiousness as public officials.

However there is a difference between wanting and doing, as Davies yet again demonstrated. In withdrawing the motion, the NDP has again managed to make fools of themselves by saying,

"As for motion 141, this was submitted in error and Libby Davies (Vancouver East) is withdrawing it."

Get that? Davies, the NDP's Deputy Leader, accidentally tabled a motion to Parliament. The fact that it was widely criticized and ridiculed with a party leadership convention on the horizon no doubt helped Davies recognize her mistake.

But David Akin pointed out on his blog that if Davies made a mistake by tabling that motion, it's a mistake she has repeated frequently. Akin noted the same motion was put forward by Davies more than ten times in the last ten years.

Conservative MP Kevin Sorinson explained Davies 'mistake' more plausibly: "The only reason Ms. Davies is withdrawing her OAS Motion M-141 is because her leadership contention musings is forcing issues like this one into the spotlight. She has to try and rid herself of this kind of reckless-spending measure that her and her Opposition colleagues are always pulling on the governing party. "

With ringmaster Layton gone, the clowns are running the NDP circus. The laughs will keep coming, but only as long as Canadians continue to realize that people like Libby Davies should be kept as far as possible from the reins of power.

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More anti-Semitism from NDP leadership hopeful Libby Davies' spouse's website

The radical socialist movement in Canada frequently veers into vociferous anti-Semitism. Under the guise of "Palestinian solidarity activism" socialists vent their Jew-hatred while betraying principles of equality in their alliances with groups that support regimes that repress women and persecute Gays. One such example is the unholy axis of James Clark's Canadian Peace Alliance and Zafar Bangash and CASMO, who act as advocates for the totalitarian, anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying Iranian theocracy.

One of the clearing-houses for this bigotry is run by the spouse of NDP leadership hopeful, Libby Davies. Rabble.ca is published by Kim Elliott, Davies' spouse. Its discussion forums are tightly controlled and users are frequently banned for defending Israel or criticizing unions. Indeed, rabble.ca's paid moderators sometimes use the discussion forums to promote Davies.  But one type of behaviour that is fostered there is calling Israel a "Nazi" country. This type of attempt to paint a liberal, democratic Jewish state with a free press and independent judiciary as a genocidal monster is one of the new forms of anti-Semitism identified by the Canadian Parliamentary Commission on Anti-Semitism.

It is little surprise that this type of hatred and bigotry would be associated with supporters of Libby Davies, who recently boasted about her association with a member of European Parliament who was tried for promoting anti-Semitism in France. Rabble's user forums, which have included the anti-Semitic invective directed at SUN TV host Michael Coren as a "damped Jew" now has a regular poster using Iranian propaganda to demonize Israel as following "in Hitler's footsteps." The anti-Semitic propaganda he promotes makes the absurd accusation that Israel is "using Gaza as a Nazi concentration camp."

Davies- her intellect is only matched
by her sex appeal

Davies frequently appears at rabble.ca-sponsored events and that venue provides insight into the sort of attitude that Canadians can expect to see fostered in the NDP if she and her camp of radicals continue to gain influence in that political party. By making both Davies and the pragmatic, intelligent Thomas Mulcair both Deputy Leaders, the NDP's shrewd former leader, Jack Layton, played radical and mainstream elements of the party against each other to consolidate his control. But now that Layton is gone and no leader has emerged with a semblance of his authority in his party, the NDP could easily descend into a fanatical, hate-mongering political movement dominated by obtuse ideologues like Davies.

Why the NDP's effort to create a Trudeau-like Layton cult will ultimately fail

Canada's New Democratic Party is a the manifestation of a political movement mired in obsolete radicalism that the major countries in the developed world have rejected. One needs only to look at their leadership of Libby Davies, Joe Comartin, Brian Topp, Paul Dewar, to see irrelevant middle-aged white people who have clasped on to union-driven, "make the rich pay" vapid sloganeering which has been shunned by a world that continues to embrace "The Third Way."

Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Jean Chretien led a wave of blending liberal social policies with conservative economics that created stability and prosperity for their countries and is an approach that has been embraced by the majority of voters in most of the world's major democratic nations.

The NDP, with its regressive policies, was nonetheless able to score an increase in its vote in part due to the personal popularity of its recently deceased leader, Jack Layton. But the NDP surge was even more due to the inept political skills of Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, whose party's collapse provided virtually all of the NDP's gains.

With Layton gone, the NDP realizes they have no one comparable to replace him, but to cling on to the momentum that Layton's death has given them, they are being shameless in their attempt to replicate a Canadian phenomenon. 

At the end of his political career, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was intensely unpopular. He resigned his seat rather than face Brian Mulroney in an election he knew he was going to lose. Trudeau had earned the enmity of western Canada for the contempt he showed them and was unpopular in the rest of the country for the poor economic leadership of his government. Indeed, much of Trudeau's political success is due to his having the good fortune to face the least charismatic opponents in Canadian political history in the persons of Bob Stanfield (twice) and Joe Clark.

But a funny thing happened after Trudeau resigned. His popularity increased about a decade later, as some people's nostalgia helped them forget how badly he mismanaged the country. He also benefited from a generation of students who were taught that the multicultural policies he imposed were visionary and about the genuine vision he had in his achievement of patriating Canada's Constitution and creating a Charter of Rights. From this nostalgia emerged a Cult of Trudeau that the Liberal Party had been able to use to its advantage until 2006, and still has adherents.

The NDP, as out of touch as they may be, are not completely absent of observational skills, and seeing the sympathy that has been expressed over Layton's death to cancer, think they can ride that sympathy into the creation of a Layton legend and cult that will continue.

But the NDP brain trust forgot a few things. The sympathy for Layton has a lot to do with him being likable and people being naturally empathetic to a public figure dying, almost literally, before their eyes. Layton was as little like Trudeau as he was like Bobby Kennedy. Sixty-one is early to die, but it can only be considered young if you're a Galapagos tortoise. Layton wasn't martyred for his beliefs, he died of a disease that takes thousands of other Canadians every year in circumstances that are no less tragic for the loved ones of those involved.

Patriation of Canada's Constitution

The major difference between Trudeau and Layton that will prevent the Layton cult the NDP hopes for from sticking is that unlike the NDP leader, Mr. Trudeau had accomplishments.

There is no lasting legacy that the NDP can point to for Layton. Whereas Trudeau did have the Constitution, Charter, and multiculturalism, as well as exhibiting strong, determined leadership during the October Crisis. Trudeau helped maneuver Canada's foreign policy towards being more independent and he fought off the greatest threat to the separation of Quebec when it was led by the independence movement's most dynamic and intelligent leader ever, Rene Levesque.

Not the least notable difference between the two men is that unlike Layton, Trudeau actually earned the title of Right Honourable by being elected Prime Minister.

The NDP may be riding high for the moment on Jack Layton's ashes, but with an election more than four years away, the distant memory of a likable guy who didn't really do much to affect Canada will pale in comparison to the issues of the day in 2016. It's the Liberal Party, with its stronger roster of capable politicians and history of national leadership that stands the most to gain from the NDP's loss of Jack Layton.

With Ringmaster Layton gone, the NDP clown show fumbles before the body is buried

The NDP has been trying to canonize its recently deceased leader, heaping invective on anyone who dared to challenge the partisan nature of their crass exploitation of his death.

But their violation of election laws by funnelling donations to the Broadbent Institute through the party has got them in trouble with Elections Canada and highlights the cynical behaviour of the socialist "mourners"

Kady O'Malley has the story

h/t Moose and Squirrel

Christie Blatchford's article about Jack Layton's death inspires facebook hate pages

This article inspired this page, and this page which is the same but has the clever addition of the f-bomb.

I bet at least half the "likes" come from CBC employees.

Jack Layton is gone - the headless body of the NDP remains

The NDP's surge to Opposition status can be attributed solely to the charisma of Jack Layton, who died from cancer this morning at the age of 61. The NDP made modest gains in the rest of Canada, but it is Quebec that turned the perennial 4th Party in Parliament into the Official Opposition.

The ineffectiveness of Gilles Duceppe's Bloc Quebecois, Layton's character and his Quebec roots, and socialist policies similar to the Bloc's all contributed to the NDP's unprecedented gains in Canada's French-speaking province. But of those factors, Layton's leadership was undoubtedly foremost.

The NDP gain was a double-edged sword for the party. It came with the cost of a Conservative majority, which ironically left the socialist party with less power despite its vast increase in seats. It also cost the NDP in that the increased scrutiny that came with being Opposition highlighted the incompetence and stupidity of so many of its caucus members.

Today's NDP

Now Canada's socialist party resembles Mike the Headless Chicken, who survived a decapitation to become an oddity.

With its perpetually smiling, vacuous interim leader Nicole Turmel a mere stopgap, the knives will soon emerge as a fight to replace Layton likely will occur very soon. The leaders of the NDP range from the responsible yet uncharismatic, like Tom Mulcair and Paul Dewar to the inept and the crazy, like its Deputy Leader Libby Davies, known for promoting 9-11 conspiracy theories and association with anti-Semites.

Layton was able to dominate and bind his disparate group through his distinct personality, but none of the contenders for the NDP crown have a shred of Layton's leadership or character.  Over the next few days, the condolences and tributes to Layton will pour in. In the weeks after, the Liberals and what's left of the Bloc, as well as the governing Conservatives are all aware of the vacuum created by Layton's death, and will attempt to exploit the abyss at the top of the NDP.

If there is any silver lining for the NDP in the loss of its leading light, it is that it came very early in the electoral cycle, which will give them an opportunity to try to rebuild behind a new leader.
They may wish that was not the case. Four years of bungling and stupidity from that caucus will probably lead to another Tory government and the resurgence of the Liberal party after the next national election.

UPDATE: Recognizing his end was near, Layton wrote a letter two days before his death, which he wanted to be made public afterwards.  Among other things, it states his wish that an NDP leadership convention should be held early in 2012.