Jack Layton ... RIP

[Urbane]

A gracious and appropriate move on Prime Minister Harper's part to offer a state funeral for Jack Layton. In listening to the prime minister earlier today talking about Jack Layton and their mutual love of music I got the distinct impression that they liked each other. And while they obviously had their political differences there was certainly a mutual respect.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2 ... plans.html

[flamingfingers]

Jack was a passionate man. A true Canadian who worked for and was with us common folk. His letter was one of inspiration that reinforced our Canadian values.

His family, friends and us common folk he worked so hard for mourn his passing. My heartfelt condolences.

[steven lloyd]

A gracious and appropriate move on Prime Minister Harper's part to offer a state funeral for Jack Layton.

Very much agreed.

[NAB]

Jack has my respect as a person, a great Canadian, and politician, even if our philosophy and political preferences didn't coincide very often (but did at times on some issues I must admit). Regardless of political philosophy, the example he set as a political party leader is one that wise politicians of any political stripe would be well advised to emulate, although very few, if any, probably could. He was one of a kind in a world of "cookie cutter politicians".

RIP "Jack-O-Layton". Canada will be much weakened as a nation with a conscience with your loss. But ya done good while you were here fella, and will be sadly missed by millions of Canadians, ....you are well deserving of the proud place history has reserved for you.

[bbmyster_1]

Although i am not one to participate in elections and so forth..Anything LESS then a State Funeral for this man would be a an Absolute Disgrace !!...My heart goes out to his family...living in Toronto for 37 years , i got the opportunity to watch...and even meet Mr. Layton during the early 90's , and he meant so much to the people he resided for and spoke for.....we need more like him !!....My votes are usually cast aside for my usual feelings....garbage in...garbage out...but if their Ever was a Man i thought could get the job done....Mr. Layton was that man !.....RIP....you will be Truly Missed !!

[Mr. Personality]

Although i am not one to participate in elections and so forth..Anything LESS then a State Funeral for this man would be a an Absolute Disgrace !!

I don't think I feel as strongly, but I completely agree. I would actually expect it for any seat holding party leader, let alone the leader of the Opposition.

[Phoenix Within]

I would actually expect it for any seat holding party leader, let alone the leader of the Opposition.

That's actually the part that confuses me some. My understanding is that a State funeral is automatically held for any past/present GG, past/present PM, and sitting members of cabinet. Does it apply to only the ruling party? I'm going to assume it does, otherwise the gesture by the PM to offer a state funeral doesn't have as much meaning behind it if this wasn't the case.

Regardless, it's good form on the part of the PM, and a fitting tribute for what Jack accomplished in the last election.

[The Green Barbarian]

I would actually expect it for any seat holding party leader, let alone the leader of the Opposition.

That's actually the part that confuses me some. My understanding is that a State funeral is automatically held for any past/present GG, past/present PM, and sitting members of cabinet. Does it apply to only the ruling party? I'm going to assume it does, otherwise the gesture by the PM to offer a state funeral doesn't have as much meaning behind it if this wasn't the case.

Regardless, it's good form on the part of the PM, and a fitting tribute for what Jack accomplished in the last election.

Harper is a politician, he knows that the best way right now is to give Jack the send-off he deserves. Glad that Harper chose the high road here though, the last thing that should be happening right now is political games being played over what kind of funeral should be held. Just do the right thing, honour a man who was loved by many, and forget politics for awhile, that's what everyone wants.

[coffeeFreak]

Here's a nice article about Jack Layton

Remembering Layton Singing in the Clouds

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/08/memories-of-layton-singing-above-the-clouds.html

[oneh2obabe]

Opposition Leader Jack Layton will lie in state this week in two places dear to his political heart: Toronto City Hall and the House of Commons.

His state funeral, for invited dignitaries and ordinary Canadians, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the 2,800-seat Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.

The public can pay tribute to Layton in the foyer of the House of Commons on Wednesday from 12:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Layton’s body will then travel to Toronto where he will lie in state at City Hall on Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... -hall?bn=1

[Jo]

Interesting article, with a lot of good points: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Chris ... story.html

[BigBadBootyDaddy]

While I didn't agree with his politics, I really admired him as a man and a person. Its a sad day for all of Canada, and Canadians in general

[Rwede]

Christie Blatchford: Layton’s death turns into a thoroughly public spectacle


Christie Blatchford Aug 22, 2011 – 6:53 PM ET | Last Updated: Aug 23, 2011 10:07 AM ET

By the accounts of those who knew him best and loved him most, if there was a truly private side of Jack Layton, it was but a sliver of the man who happily lived virtually his entire adult life in the public eye and who was a 24/7 politician who was always on.

Yes, his death at 61 was sad and too soon; yes, he made an enormous contribution to his party and a significant one to Canada (though I would quibble with NDP MP Libby Davies’ characterization that “He gave his life for this country”); yes, he fought a brave battle against cancer, as, mind you, does just about anyone who has it; and yes, he was a likeable, agreeable, smiley man.

Yet what was truly singular about him was how consumed by politics he was and how publicly, yet comfortably, he lived.

How fitting that his death should have been turned into such a thoroughly public spectacle, where from early morn Monday, television anchors donned their most funereal faces, producers dug out the heavy organ music, reporters who would never dream of addressing any other politician by first name only were proudly calling him “Jack” and even serious journalists like Evan Solomon of the CBC repeatedly spoke of the difficulty “as we all try to cope” with the news of Mr. Layton’s death.

By mid-day, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper had offered a few warm words about Mr. Layton’s death and rued that their oft-talked-about jam session had never happened, Mr. Solomon even expressed sniping surprise that “Jack Layton wasn’t the sole focus” of the Prime Minister’s remarks.

Mr. Harper, who clearly had not spent the day watching the national broadcaster and thus was unaware that the NDP Leader’s death was the only story of note, had gone on to mention the families of the 12 people (including six-year-old Cheyenne Eckalook; now there’s someone who died far too young) who perished in the Arctic plane crash on Saturday and the tumultuous events in Libya.

The PM in fact was one of a very few voices of reason to be found on the airwaves — he remembered Mr. Layton kindly and with evident regard, but he had perspective and did not fawn.

And what to make of that astonishing letter, widely hailed as Mr. Layton’s magnificent from-the-grave cri de coeur?

It was extraordinary, though it is not Mr. Solomon’s repeated use of that word that makes it so.

Rather, it’s remarkable because it shows what a canny, relentless, thoroughly ambitious fellow Mr. Layton was. Even on Saturday, two days before he died, he managed to keep a gimlet eye on all the campaigns to come.

The letter is full of such sophistry as “We can restore our good name in the world,” as though it is a given Canada has somehow lost that, bumper-sticker slogans of the “love is better than anger” ilk and ruthlessly partisan politicking (“You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together with progressive-minded Canadians across the country,” he said in the section meant for Quebecers).

The letter is vainglorious too.

Who thinks to leave a 1,000-word missive meant for public consumption and released by his family and the party mid-day, happily just as Mr. Solomon and his fellows were in danger of running out of pap? Who seriously writes of himself, “All my life I have worked to make things better”?

The letter was first presented as Mr. Layton’s last message to Canadians, as something written by him on his deathbed; only later was it more fully described as having been “crafted” with party president Brian Topp, Mr. Layton’s chief of staff Anne McGrath and his wife and fellow NDP MP Olivia Chow.

Mr. Layton wrote it, as Mr. Topp told Mr. Solomon, “in his beautiful, energy-retrofitted house” in downtown Toronto. These people never stop.

The reaction to his death — it was still shocking how fast it came, despite his cadaverous appearance in late July when he stepped down, temporarily it was hoped — was universally described as unique and of course, the day’s adjective, as extraordinary.

Held out as evidence of Canadians’ great love for Mr. Layton were the makeshift memorials of flowers, notes that appeared at his Toronto constituency office and on Parliament Hill, and in condolences in social media.

In truth, none of that is remotely unusual, or spontaneous, but rather the norm in the modern world, and it has been thus since Princess Diana died, the phenomenon now fed if not led online. People the planet over routinely weep for those they have never met and in some instances likely never much thought about before; what once would have been deemed mawkish is now considered perfectly appropriate.

Certainly, Canadians liked Mr. Layton, but the public over-the-top nature of such events — by fans for lost celebrities they never met, by television personalities for those they interviewed once for 10 minutes, by the sad and lost for the dead — make it if not impossible then difficult to separate the mourning wheat from the mourning chaff. His loss — his specific loss and his specific accomplishments — are thus diminished.

His greatest moments — the bravest and most admirable — came during his fight with prostate cancer, the subsequent hip surgery and his most recent battle with the cancer, whose nature he never disclosed except to say it was new, which killed him.

He must have been in pain; he may have been afraid. Yet again and again, waving the cane that became in his clever hands an asset, he campaigned tirelessly.

In the end, it was Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, a family physician whose Toronto practice once counted Mr. Layton’s family as patients, who said it best and with a physician’s sorrowful pragmatism: “As family doctors, we don’t have magic wands…this street fighter lost to the body betrayal.”

National Post
[email protected]

[coffeeFreak]

Can you ever just leave it alone Richard?

[logicalview]

Questioning the cost of Layton's state funeral

By Joe Warmington ,Toronto Sun

Usually when you hear about unusual and unprecedented government spending, the first place you go for reaction is the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which doesn’t pull punches — no matter who is in power.

“The Queen Mother’s funeral cost $2.3 million pounds in 2002, but they had 9,000 police and 3,000 troops,” said national director Greg Thomas. “Sgt Ryan Russell’s funeral in Toronto probably had a larger uniformed presence than the Layton funeral will. I couldn’t pull up the costs related to that funeral.”

As for Layton’s funeral?

“The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is not commenting on the state funeral for Jack Layton, except to affirm that this honour is befitting of his status as a currently serving leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition, on medical leave when he died.”

Is questioning the cost to the public of an out-of-protocol funeral appropriate? Same goes for asking a guy battling cancer if he was healthy enough to run for the top job in the land? Seemed like a fair question last spring.

Six months later, had Layton won the election, we would be without a prime minister right now and perhaps have a former separatist as interim leader?

People seem uncomfortable with tough questions concerning popular Layton. So many — foes as well as friends — liked and respected the NDP leader and former Toronto councillor — myself included. Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper succumbed to the emotion by offering Layton’s grieving widow, MP Olivia Chow, the state funeral.

In Great Britain such a gesture would require a vote in parliament. But imagine how the left would have vilified Harper had he chosen to do that? Either way is it how taxpayer’s money should be spent?

Before you dismiss the question as heartless, consider the potential precedent setting cost. Layton was just recently elected opposition leader. We question government spending on everything bike lanes to fighter jets. Is there a limit to our probing of how public funds are spent?

For example, Layton was never prime minister or a cabinet minister or even a municipal mayor. He never held any in-power positions and certainly was not the pope, king, saint or John Lennon that some on the left want to anoint him in their quest to create a martyr.

There’s nothing wrong with it. But should you be paying for a portion of it?

Layton was a good man but up until now Canada did not have state funerals for opposition leaders.

Would that money be better off spent to help the homeless? Or the tornado-ravaged people of Goderich? Nobody questioned how and where to earmark Canada’s money more than Layton.

Would this funeral have been paid for by the taxpayers had it been a separatist as opposition leader like Lucien Bouchard? And in such a scenario would it be taboo to ask how much it cost us?

Certainly taxpayer’s money has been spent on other controversial events — close to $1 billion for the G8, G20 and $10-million on the Rolling Stones SARSTOCK at Downsview. But those decisions were scrutinized and criticized.

Should this one be?

Perhaps, it will be more appropriate when all the bills are in — especially if Saturday turns into a taxpayer-funded NDP rally.

Sun Media librarian Katherine Webb-Nelson found that former prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s state funeral in 2000 came in at $665,455 — including $68,000 for him to lie in state, $50,000 for a big screen at the church, more than $20,000 for thank you cards, newspaper ads and an official photographer and $46,000 for the travel costs of the pallbearers and for RCMP security overtime.

But Trudeau was prime minister for 15 years and a legend on the political landscape. Does an opposition leader of just months deserve the same treatment?