Given the recent spate of classless comments about Jack Layton by people like Christie Blatchford, Jonathan Kay and Barbara Kay, I have come to the conclusion that there is something deeply threatening to the far right in the life and death of Jack Lay…
Continue readingTag: Christie Blatchford
bastard.logic: How Dare Jack Layton Make Canadians Feel Hopeful Again!
by matttbastard David J. Climenhaga, responding to National Post columnist Christie Blatchford’s now-infamous cranky, contrarian reaction to Canada’s outpouring of love and admiration for Socialist cur Taliban Jack Layton (HISSSSSSS!): [T]he offending column is far from the worst piece Blatchford has written, … Continue reading →
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: What would Jack do? Layton’s hopeful mien should guide our response to Christie Blatchford’s column
Some of the throng that gathered at the Alberta Legislature Wednesday evening to honour and mourn the death of NDP Leader Jack Layton. Postmedia News columnist Christie Blatchford, in a mugshot snatched from the Internet.
The last person I expected to…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Krusty Blatchford and the Farting Dog
Oh.My.Doggy. I was hoping not to have to write anything about the way Christie Blatchford crapped on Jack Layton’s memory, the day after he died.Because as he so sadly showed life is too short to worry about nasty things like that, when we’ve got a wor…
Continue readingRailroaded by Metrolinx: A Dozen Oranges for Jack: In Memoriam from City Hall
“Jack was the reason I started voting.” – Message written in chalk on Nathan Phillips Square wall Much has been said about NDP Opposition Leader Jack Layton over the past few days, but much more can be written about the legacy he left as a City of Toronto councillor. His
Continue readingRailroaded by Metrolinx: A Dozen Oranges for Jack: In Memoriam from City Hall
“Jack was the reason I started voting.”
– Message written in chalk on Nathan Phillips Square wall
Much has been said about NDP Opposition Leader Jack Layton over the past few days, but much more can be written about the legacy he left as a City of Toronto councillor. His son, Councillor Mike Layton, will be hard pressed to continue his work, and fight against deep cuts to core public services at Toronto’s City Hall this September.
Representing bicyclists, the homeless, those with HIV, union members, and cultural producers, Jack Layton was an activist for a just society, with the flexibility to adapt to the new realities of climate change, AIDS, housing shortages, labour policy and pay equity. Mentored as a student by ex-mayors John Sewell and David Crombie, his policies instituted from his 1982 election at City Hall became the foundation of a progressive Toronto; these same policies are currently under systematic attack through a new neo-conservative agenda, spearheaded by Mayor Rob Ford.
The Monday morning of his death, I awoke to find that R. Jeanette Martin had posted on Facebook a photo of Jack and Olivia riding on a tandem bicycle at Pride, clad in orange, surrounded by fluorescent drag queens, and tagged it This is our Royal Couple. This is how Jack Layton attended Pride, cycling in tandem with Olivia, emanating joy, pride and inclusivity, surrounded by the love of a community whose causes he championed far before it was fashionable. Olivia and Jack are, and were, a team that could not be beaten, and deeply in sync.
When I asked Jeanette permission to write about this photograph, she said that Jack would not have liked that his regulation headshot was published in the mainstream media to commemorate his death, that her office is still a wreck from culling her archives to find the best shot after the announcement, and that this is one of her favourite photos that she has ever taken as a freelance photojournalist. As her photo made the Facebook newsfeeds, the irony was not lost that our present mayor, Rob Ford, was present at Pride only in effigy, as dozens of people pointed out his absence in painted imagery and sign.
At 4 p.m., I biked to City Hall, and bought a dozen oranges in Chinatown, close to where Jack and Olivia once lived. A bouquet of oranges, rather than roses, seemed a fitting tribute to the one known simply as ‘Jack’, who advocated that the wealth of the commons, taken from our natural and social resources, was redistributed to enable each citizen to live with dignity, with the possibility of a brighter future. As I handed each of these oranges to my friends – artists, musicians, social justice activists, public sector employees- all proponents of city building – I asked them to say a few words, and photographed them with City Hall in the background. Most were speechless with grief.
Meanwhile, mourners chalked their condolences for an outpouring of affection covering the walls and ground in Nathan Phillips Square, writing well into the night. Jack Layton was a brilliant auctioneer with his red armbands and fast patter, but he auctioned for beneficial causes, such as the 519 Community Centre, not with the future resources of our country.
How do we commemorate a politician, activist and author who opened the first food bank, and wrote extensively about affordable housing issues in Homelessness: The Making and Unmaking of a Crisis? As suggested by the Toronto Star editorial this week, do we name a bicycle network, or re-name an existing Toronto space or service, such as Dundas Park, a homeless shelter, or, Huron Street, the short stretch of road leading to the house he shared with Olivia in Chinatown?
To honour his political legacy, I would suggest renaming a homeless shelter, and establishing a scholarship for developing homeless policy through donations through the Broadbent Institute. I am afraid if we name a commuter bicycle network, under the current regime, it will never come to pass.
Swinging his cane, Jack Layton may have hastened the progression of his cancer during his campaign for Prime Minister by leading the NDP to a landmark victory as a formidable opposition to the Conservative majority; it is moot to know, and something he hid from public view. He carefully chose not to share the prognosis, diagnosis or treatment of his spreading cancer so as not to influence the decisions of others during their course of treatment, and so as not to upset his supporters.
The unprovoked vitriol, in the National Post article by Christie Blatchford, hit a man when he was gone, when he was unable to defend himself. His legacy of orange hope will live on, long after her words will be forgotten. For Blatchford, his last letter was grandstanding with empty platitudes, but she has shown that the position of the new right focuses on a Canada whose soulless future does not include, or reflect, the common good it once served.
Rest in Peace, Jack. We will defend the house that Jack built.
This article is dedicated to my cousin, Ali, and her husband, Adrian, on their wedding day. May your relationship be as in sync as Jack and Olivia’s tandem ride.
Reference:
Christie Blatchford: Layton’s death turns into a thoroughly public spectacle, August 23rd, National Post, at http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/08/22/christie-blatchford-laytons-death-turns-into-a-thoroughly-public-spectacle/
Railroaded by Metrolinx: A Dozen Oranges for Jack: In Memoriam from City Hall
“Jack was the reason I started voting.” – Message written in chalk on Nathan Phillips Square wall Much has been said about NDP Opposition Leader Jack Layton over the past few days, but much more can be written about the legacy he left as a City of Toronto councillor. His
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: On that Blatchford column
There has been lots of ink, tweets and blogposts written and spilled over Christie Blatchford’s rather controversial National Post column about the public and media reaction to Jack Layton’s death and/or his farewell letter.
What I’ll say is this; she of course has the right to say whatever she wants – we live in a free country after all. Some are questioning if this was the proper time to say it, but I’m looking at it more from the angle that if this had been a Conservative high ranking politician, or a high ranking General or Policeman who had died far too young and who had left words of […]
Continue readingThey Call Me "Mr. Sinister": A Future Obituary For Christie Blatchford
Christie Blatchford died, alone and unloved, surrounded by her cats.
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Blatchford’s Column
The Naylor tweet, incidentally, is degrees worse that Blatchford’s now infamous column, which in comparison seems merely stupid and insensitive. Her argument, as I read it, is that Mr. Layton’s final letter to Canadians was a …
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: A Response to Ms Christie Blatchford
A Response to Ms. Christie Blatchford « Joshua Hind: No Humble OpinionsJoshua responds to Christie’s attack on Jack Layton on the day of his death with a version of Marc Antony’s speech from Julius Caesar inserting Jack and Blatchford. Very well done.
Continue readingNow Toronto answers Christie Blatchford
In a wonderfully-written, humorous piece, Now Toronto eviscerates hate merchant Christie Blatchford. Nice someone in the ranks of Canadian journalism is taking a stand for her opportunism over Layton’s demise, even as Blatchford’s compatriots at the Na…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Christie – blah blah blah – Blatchford
I read Chrisie Blatchford’s reprehensible column yesterday on Jack Layton, and since the comment boards are ablaze with outrage over her remarks, allow me to briefly add my own thoughts about people of her ilk:I have come to the conclusion that the rig…
Continue readingJonathan Kay defends Christie Blatchford’s indefensible column on Jack Layton
Yesterday, Christie Blatchford wrote a column for the National Post full of back handed compliments to Jack Layton on the day his death. Between the lines, however, lay a great streak of right-winged opportunism, attacking the man and his party for their beliefs and actions. Using terms like ‘vainglorious’ and ‘sophistry’, Blatchford used . . . → Read More: Jonathan Kay defends Christie Blatchford’s indefensible column on Jack Layton
Continue readingConservative Christie Blatchford thinks mourning for Layton to be a trivial matter, an exercise of tears in excess and an orgy of undue admiration
Bet on Conservatives to always go against the crowd, trying to demonstrate originality but always doing so in the most egregious way, and you’ll never be disappointed. And this was the case with one of the National Post Full Comment columns for tod…
Continue readingThe right reacts to death of Jack Layton
Stephen Taylor must be so proud.
“By the end of today’s news cycle… …there will be no part of his anatomy left unkissed… “
Small Dead Animals begins its discussion of Layton’s passing begging for civility from commenters. Commendable but the fact that it is even necessary is a sad commentary of its own.
. . . → Read More: The right reacts to death of Jack Layton
Continue readingBlatchford back where she belongs
Into the belly of the diseased jaws of Conrad Black yellow journalism, where she once held court and can now once again discard any pretence of objectivity and balance that must have weighed on her at the grey lady.Good for Christie. And…
Continue readingWhat Have You Done, Clucking Christie Bitchford?
She’s a left the Grope & Fail and sayin’ hello to the Pestmedia! CEO Paul Godfrey is just so wild about havin’ her!
“We are thrilled to welcome Christie to Postmedia,” said Paul Godfrey President and CEO. “Christie Blatchford is a game changer in the world of journalism and we’re overjoyed to have . . . → Read More: What Have You Done, Clucking Christie Bitchford?
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