by Judi McLeod
June 24, 2004
To this day, NDP leader Jack Layton is remembered when he and his wife Olivia Chow, making $120,000 between them from the public purse, were caught living in a taxpayer-subsidized, three-bedroom, downtown Toronto co-op, paying $800 a month rent.
as a councillor Layton showed up for photo ops with his bicycle, but took chauffeur-driven limousine rides around town on an every-other-day frequency basis.
But Layton’s most infamous legacy was a tragic public relations stunt gone wrong: His strategic creation of Tent City for self-aggrandizement and the human misery that was a direct result of that creation.
Back in 1998 when a group of young people were housing themselves in a derelict building in the city’s port lands, Jack Layton paid them a personal visit and asked them to move onto the lot next door. after talking the teens into making the move, Layton provided donated tents starting Tent City, a squalid shanty town that drew a collection of ex-cons, alcoholics, and drug addicts and put the City of Toronto on the negative map as far away as New York city.
Unfortunately, the media spotlight never followed young and naïve runaway teens that became drug addicts at Tent City.
When the gig was up, Layton was nowhere to be seen.
as the Toronto Star so aptly put it. "Layton was three time zones away" in Vancouver when the 100 plus residents of `Laytonville’ were suddenly forced off the property in September 2002.
Layton, who had coaxed the first teenagers to the site, was in faraway Vancouver campaigning for the NDP leadership.
Said columnist Terry Corcoran in the Financial Post…"Laytonville was a squalid symbol of how far activists would go to fabricate a public relations vehicle and use its unfortunate residents as pawns in their cause.
"In creating Tent City, Mr. Layton and others orchestrated the illegal confiscation of Home Depot property on Toronto’s waterfront and used it as a representation of the plight of Toronto’s homeless."
Jack Layton never looked back over his shoulder at the tragic human misery he created when he was running for the NDP leadership. Those left high and dry by Laytonville and teens-turned-drug-addicts were the only reminder of Layton smashing the dreams of the needy and naïve, just to get ahead.
In the federal election campaign, Jack Layton’s key message is "hopefulness".
On the day after the first English TV debate, the National Post’s Colby Cosh wrote, "Jack Layton radiated snake-oil charm into the lens, smirking as he talked of "hopefulness" until you just wanted to hug him--with one hand on your wallet."
There is no chance for hopefulness in Jack Layton, only the raw ambition of a politician who would walk on the backs of teenagers and the down and out to get ahead.
Jack Layton is an activist, but Canada needs a Prime Minister.
Jack Layton is NDP leader, but he’s a leader minus a House of Commons seat. He wants a seat in Toronto-Danforth because it’s convenient and that’s where the NDP and the $500,000 homes in their "Culture of Contentment" exist.
Jack Layton is running in Toronto-Danforth riding, but Toronto-Danforth needs incumbent MP Dennis Mills, a maverick dedicated to the Riding, Liberal or not.
The NDP may have a toehold in Toronto-Danforth but they don’t own the Riding. The people of Toronto-Danforth do.
Here’s hoping that on June 28, they mark their ballots against the abject hopelessness of Laytonville’s Jack Layton.
>Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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