Layton Lionisation Excessive

[bush_cheney2004]

Please do not add laughing smily faces in your comments in regards to someone who has died of cancer-Please!

Would it be better if he was hit by a bus?

[Guest Derek L]

Now that I think about it, Jack did have a resemblance to Lenin (in his tomb). Think of the ticket sales and tourist revenue from a similar mausoleum experience in Canada. You be the judge....

Do they still have Lenin?

[bush_cheney2004]

Do they still have Lenin?

Oh yea..he is a must see for tourists. I think they have Stalin freeze dried somewhere too, but he is not as "popular"!

[Guest Derek L]

Oh yea..he is a must see for tourists. I think they have Stalin freeze dried somewhere too, but he is not as "popular"!

I guess they have some good taxidermists over there

[cybercoma]

Loved him? "Loved"?

Loved was hyperbole on MG's part. The point I was making is that many people were inspired by Jack Layton in the last election. Thus, it's a bit tragic that he lost his battle with cancer so soon after receiving enough support to become leader of the opposition and accomplish what no other NDP leader has. People found hope in his message and now the man is dead. People that found inspiration in what he accomplished just a few months ago have every right to mourn his loss.

[Sir Bandelot]

I'm not putting the guy down here.

Err, yeah you are.

Or if that ain't puttin down, I'd hate to see you really cut loose.

Anyway yeah it does seem a bit much, given most didn't seem to care much about his brand of politics when he was alive. The good thing I see is Canadians need a hero, someone to inspire us and make people feel proud to be Canadian. If he's the embodiment of that at this time, so be it. I doubt it means they'll all be voting NDP come the next time around.

[Sir Bandelot]

For better or worse, it says Canadians crave a political 'Obama'. Layton has shown the way forward.

[Guest Derek L]

For better or worse, it says Canadians crave a political 'Obama'. Layton has shown the way forward.

And I’m certain Mr Layton, if he had of been able to form the government would have mimicked Obama’s “success”….

[capricorn]

For better or worse, it says Canadians crave a political 'Obama'.

I would agree Canadians crave a visionary. Perhaps we have reached a point where we view our politics as boring and require someone to stimulate our nationalistic juices.

Layton has shown the way forward.

The way forward for who Sir B? IMO without Layton and no one of his caliber in the NDP caucus to take charge, the only way the NDP is going is downward. As many have said, the NDP gain was not so much a vote for their policies as a vote for Smiling Jack/Le bon Jack.

[bush_cheney2004]

... As many have said, the NDP gain was not so much a vote for their policies as a vote for Smiling Jack/Le bon Jack.

...and a healthy dose of imploding free-fall from the Liberals and their former "great visionary".

[capricorn]

...and a healthy dose of imploding free-fall from the Liberals and their former "great visionary".

Indeed. Jack was there to fill the void, if only temporarily.

[g_bambino]

Those are the facts of our country most Opposition leaders have gotten state funerals because most became PM.

Which just leads me back to the same question: why did Layton, who never became prime minister, or a governor general, or even manage to be as unifying and inspirational as Terry Fox (who received a personal message of prayer from the Pope but wasn't given a state funeral), "deserve" a state funeral?

[g_bambino]

I don’t think he deserved a state funeral, but Harper giving him one was smart politics……..Ever seen the movie the Queen? Or better yet, remember when Diana died? The royalties initial reaction was to (rightfully in my view) deal with her death in a private manner and allow the Spencer family to take care of it……..Then the media whipped up the public in a outrage over the royalty being in Scotland on a hunting trip when her body was returned to England……….The there was outrage over the flag at Buckingham Palace not been at half mast etc………In the end, PM Tony Blair “suggested” the Queen relent to public pressure for fear of being alienated……….

Odd you should bring that up:

It seems the rules are changing on who gets a state funeral in Canada. Jack Layton never led a government, never sat in cabinet and never served as governor-general. According to protocol and tradition, he should not be getting one. Why is he?

Because people liked him a lot, and because he was consumed by a cause in which triumph was contingent on overcoming tremendous odds, if at all, and because he faced up to a terrible illness with courage and dignity.

And because we live in a culture in which traditional mourning rituals dominated by religion have been discarded, but with nothing equally dignified to replace them, we have turned to sentimentality and kitsch to express our sense of loss.

Call it teddy bear grief. Who can forget the hysteria around Princess Diana's death, when a whole nation went slightly berserk with an outpouring of grief that was totally inappropriate and disproportionate. Anger at the paparazzi held responsible for the car crash was soon displaced by anger at the royal family for their seeming coolness. Hysteria grew over the fact that the flag at Buckingham Palace wasn't at half mast even though no royal death would have warranted it according to protocol and tradition.

The only adult in the room at that time was the Queen, on holiday in Balmoral, who at first was unaware of the national mood, and when apprised of it, was instinctively repulsed by it. Tony Blair recalled that the Queen "rightly" viewed the public mood as "irrational." But her advisors told her she had to make her sorrow public, and like the good soldier she is, she did, and the anger subsided.

Many politicians took a lesson from that episode. Stephen Harper was apparently one of them. He pre-empted condemnation of his aloofness detachment from human emotion by ordering a state funeral in order to satisfy the teddy-bear grief needs of a nation that has abandoned traditional channels for the expression of communal sorrow.

Jack Layton shouldn't get a state funeral

[Guest Derek L]

Odd you should bring that up:

Weird and or great minds think alike. The wife and I watched the Queen a couple of weeks back on tv, and when we woke to find him dead on the morning news, first thing we both said was it was going to give the media something to talk about, much like when Diana died…..And once it was announced he’d get the state funeral we both heard the twilight zone theme………And for the record, neither of us read the National Post…………..I guess more than two people see the parallels

[Socialist in Oil Country]

This thread

Disgusting

That is all

[Guest Derek L]

This thread

Disgusting

That is all

So you agree, the excessive lionisation of Jack Layton is disgusting?

[Sir Bandelot]

The way forward for who Sir B?

Not just for the NDP, but anyone who has enough skill to gain power through "the cult of personality".

[punked]

It was a big deal when the NDP devised a donations scheme that would have resulted in taxpayer subsidization of said donations. Thankfully, it was made public and corrective action taken.

I find it sad that on the eve of his funeral, attention is once again taken away from Jack the person and his accomplishments as TO Councillor and NDP leader.

You really don't understand do you? Tax payers will still subsidize because the Douglas foundation is a charitable foundation. Don't worry they will still get it all.

[punked]

Which just leads me back to the same question: why did Layton, who never became prime minister, or a governor general, or even manage to be as unifying and inspirational as Terry Fox (who received a personal message of prayer from the Pope but wasn't given a state funeral), "deserve" a state funeral?

Again the majority of people who have been opposition leaders have gotten stat funerals.

[Guest Derek L]

Again the majority of people who have been opposition leaders have gotten stat funerals.

Aren’t you picking fly poop from pepper? Did this majority of former opposition leaders that received state funerals have something else in common? Like, I dunno, also becoming Prime Minister?

[Guest American Woman]

I would say that anytime an esteemed public figure dies the reaction and funeral are "excessive." It's human nature. It isn't any different for Layton, and why should it be?

He was a "leader" in the government, albeit an "opposition leader," but the Canadians he represented are just as important as the Canadians the PM represents, and that's what a state funeral is, in effect, recognizing. As I said before, I think it would be odd of a politician of his stature - ie: a "leader" by definition and vote - didn't receive a state funeral.

[CPCFTW]

This thread

Disgusting

That is all

I agree. Especially the below:

Conservatives are just upset because Jack is receiving more attention than any of their politicians would.

Stephen Harper would have less attention if he keeled over next week.

Could it just be possible that the many Canadians who voted NDP in the last round, did so out of desperation for the fact that they've lost faith in the CPC and Liberals? Only to have their hopes dashed as Layton quickly succumbed to cancer? Hence the outpouring.

It is the death of HOPE for which they grieve...

[Guest Peeves]

I'm not sure of the process, will his deathbed letter have to be translated to Latin or Italian or both to be included in the application for sainthood?

Sorry couldn't help that. That was a goodie.

Edited August 27, 2011 by Peeves

[Guest Peeves]

Again the majority of people who have been opposition leaders have gotten stat funerals.

Names please.

[Guest Peeves]

Do they still have Lenin?

Lenin? With his casket being schlepped around by plane, car, hearse etc. I'm thinking more of 'A Weekend At Bernies' than Lenin.