The homosexual cleric Rev. Brent Hawkes delivered the sermon, Steven Page sang Leonard Cohen’s “Halleluia”, Steven Lewis couldn’t resist being political and First Nations National Chief, Shawn Atleo presented a feather in a mawkish neo-pagan send-off of the persona of Jack Layton.
Let’s hope that the person is enjoying eternity in the presence of the Triune God.
Yes I know he is dead, but he’s not much more dead than the current Primate and he’s a definite fit for the job:
He was passionate about issues of justice. He walked with the poor and the marginalized. He cared about the impact of the economy on health care, housing, and education.
[…..]
His entire public life was characterized by a profound commitment to the common good. He was a champion of human rights, and a passionate environmentalist. Proud to be Canadian he cared deeply about our place among the nations. In his final letter to all of us he wrote, “Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one—a country of greater equality, justice and opportunity.”
From here:
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.
The Anglican Socialist Church of Canada intoned its approval of Layton in death much as it had done in life:
The Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the Opposition, had a “ great compassion” for people in need. He was a doer who was deeply engaged in society and had a great vision of what Canada could be.
These are some of the things that Bishop Dennis Drainville, Anglican diocese of Quebec, will remember most about him.
But perhaps the most fitting memorial was scrawled on his gravestone:
I couldn’t agree more. Jack Layton was the reason I started voting, too – for Stephen Harper.
From here:
TORONTO – What Jos Chiu remembers most is the sign. A long, red, illuminated sign with big white letters: MASSAGE. The sign was for years vertically attached to number 787 Dundas St. W.
It was a massage parlour, but no ordinary massage parlour.
It was the kind suspected by police as one of the many in the city where women were offering the “extra service” of masturbation — a place known on the street as a rub-and-tug. It’s the same massage parlour where in January 1996 Toronto Police say they walked in on NDP Leader Jack Layton — then a Metro councillor — with his pants down — literally. In a statement Friday night, Layton said he was there for a massage and that he was told by police he had done nothing wrong.
“It was a big vertical sign on the side of the building,” said Chiu, who has owned and operated a custom T-shirt shop across the street for over 20 years.
The question is, should anyone who is daft enough to go into a massage parlour that advertises its services on a long, red, illuminated sign and naïve enough to expect his protestations of innocence to be believed, be put in charge of running a country?
Perhaps, as his wife says, “Sixteen years ago my husband went for a massage at a massage clinic that is registered with the city of Toronto. He exercises regularly; he was and remains in great shape and he needed a massage.” Or perhaps Olivia Chow’s desire for vicarious power is sufficient to temper her outrage at her husband’s desire to graze in other pastures – publicly, at least.
As is often the case with socialism in practice, taking care of the poor ends up turning into taking care of poor me.
From here:
[I]f the attitude of NDP power couple Jack Layton and Olivia Chow is any indication, many MPs still haven’t learned the most important lesson of last spring’s expense controversy: You are not entitled to this money, no questions asked, just because you are an MP.
Last year, Chow claimed $530,000 in expenses, Layton claimed $629,000. Both are above average and a little surprising given that both represent Toronto ridings. Last time I looked, T.O. was not that far from Ottawa. One might be forgiven for thinking it would cost less to ferry Toronto MPs back home as opposed to say, Yellowknife MPs or ones from Labrador. But maybe the short distance prompts them to take more trips back to their constituencies, racking up more expenses.
Chow’s sensitive, caring-for-the-average-working-stiff response when asked about her above-average expenses? “It’s within the law,” she told the Toronto Star curtly.
[T]he Layton-Chows act more like the Duke and Duchess of Downtown Toronto. They live more lavishly than the average Conservative or Liberal, then insist we peasants have no right to know more because they are acting “within the law.”
